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N€W-BRUNSWICK 

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J.W.BH1L€Y 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMEKICA. 



THE ST. JOHN RIVER 

IN MAINE, QUEBEC, AND NEW 
BRUNSWICK 



BY 



J. W. BAILEY 




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CAMBRIDGE 

Printed at t^t UiMtt&int Pre0g 

1894 



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Copyright, 1894, 
By. J. W. BAILEY. 



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CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER 

I. Introductory 

Comparison with Other Rivers . 
II. The Upper St. John 

The Baker and Southwest Branches 

The Northwest Branch . 

Seven Islands and Vicinity 

From the Islands to the Allagash . 

Big and Little Black Rivers 

Lac de L'Est .... 

Drainage Areas .... 

The Allagash River 

From Allagash to St. Francis 

The St. Francis River . 

From St. Francis to Fort Kent . 

The Great Fish River . 

From Fort Kent to Edmundston 

The Meruimptieook River 

The Madawaska River 

From Edmundston to Grand Falls 

The Oroquois River . 

Green River 

Quisibis River .... 
Grand River ..... 
The Grand Falls .... 
Colehrooke ..... 
III. The Middle St. John . 

From Grand Falls to Andover 
Salmon River .... 
The Aroostook River 



1 
3 
7 
7 
9 
11 
12 
15 
17 
18 
18 
26 
27 
32 
33 
37 
38 
41 
50 
51 
51 
55 
55 
56 
61 
62 
62 
63 
64 



iv CONTENTS. 

The Tobique River 71 

Statistics . .84 

From Andover to Woodstock .... 86 
The Beecaguimec River . . . . .89 

The Meduxnikeag River ..... 90 
From Woodstock to Fredericton . . . .91 
Minor Tributaries below Woodstock ... 95 

Eel River 9t 

The Shogomoc River ...... 99 

The Pokiok River . 99 

The Naekawick River 101 

The Keswick River 101 

The Nashwaaksis River 102 

Fredericton 103 

The Nashwaak River 105 

IV. The Lower St. John Ill 

From Fredericton to Gagetown .... Ill 

The Oromocto River 113 

From Gagetown to Indiantown .... 118 
The Drainage Area of the Jemseg River . . 122 

The Washademoak 127 

The Belleisle 128 

The Kennebecasis 129 

The Nerepis River 132 

The Tidal FaU 133 

V. Various Features of the St. John . . . 137 

Descent of the River 137 

Navigation 139 

Bridges and Ferries ...... 142 

Denudation of the Forest ..... 143 

The Freshets 145 

The Ice 148 

The Fisheries of the St. John .... 154 
Insects ......... 163 

The Disputed Territory 164 

In Conclusion 167 

VI. Settlement oe the River Valley . . . 170 



THE ST. JOHN RIVER 



CHAPTER I, 

INTRODUCTORY. 

Of tlie many rivers of Northeastern America, 
it would be difficult to find one which, in the 
diversity of its natural features, the facilities 
afforded for sportsmen, and the interesting his- 
tory of its colonization, is more worthy of mention 
than the St. John ; and yet this river, viewed in 
its entirety, has never formed the subject of any 
published work. Possibly the fact that the area 
drained by it lies partly in the United States and 
partly in Canada accounts for this. The patri- 
otic Canadian does not care to eulogize the vast 
wilderness of Northern Maine, which, if the as- 
sertions of provincial geographers are true, was 
unjustly carved out of New Brunswick by the 
much abused Ashburton Treaty. The American, 
on the other hand, is not very eager to expatiate 
upon the natural resources of a country that he 
might prefer to possess as a fractional part of his 
own. Be that as it may, an attempt will be made 



2 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

in the succeeding pages to give a comparatively 
full description of the St. Jolm, with all the larger 
tributaries, commencing at the extreme source in 
Northwestern Maine, and ending at St. John city, 
the commercial metropolis of New Brunswick, 
where the river finally unites its waters with those 
of the Bay of Fundy. 

The principal difficulty to be encountered in a 
work of this kind is the mass of detail, and the 
necessity of describing fifty or more different 
streams in more or less similar terms, without 
omitting facts that are of interest to the tourist, 
or stating them in the monotonous phraseology of 
the ordinary guide-book. Narratives of canoe 
voyages, stories of the camp, exploits of well- 
known hunters and fishermen, are but passingly 
touched upon, the design being rather to state, as 
concisely as possible, what objects of interest, 
opportunity for pleasurable " outings," and facili- 
ties for sport, await those who wish to visit the 
regions of Maine, Quebec, and New Brunswick, 
drained by the St. John, and its more important 
tributaries. 

The plan adopted is to treat the river, first as a 
whole, and in comparison with other rivers ; and 
then in detail, by sections, each section including 
some portion of the main river worthy of special 
notice, or a principal tributary, or group of 
smaller ones. Finally, there follow a few general 
remarks on the action of ice and floods, with other 



INTRODUCTORY. 6 

less important physical phenomena, and a brief 
description of the fisheries. 

COMPARISON WITH OTHER RIVERS. 

As the Hudson, the Saguenay, and the St. 
John present more natural attractions than any 
other rivers of corresponding size between the 
Atlantic coast and the central plateau of the 
North American continent, a few words of com- 
parison between them may be appropriate. 

The Saguenay, from Chicoutimi to Tadousac, 
flows through a canon, flanked by vast Laurentian 
cliffs, that rise, sometimes perpendicularly from 
the water's edge, to heights varying between five 
hundred and two thousand feet. These massive 
walls of rock are usually bare of all vegetation 
except lichens and mosses, but where the inclina- 
tion permits, small spruces and firs have gained a 
precarious foothold. The scenery is not pretty, 
but decidedly impressive. A few years ago some 
gentlemen from Ottawa entered the Saguenay in 
the night, and anchored at St. Etien, a small vil- 
lage below Marguerite Bay. One of the party, 
having climbed on deck while the cliffs were 
bathed in the weird light of early dawn, and 
silently observed the surroundings, remarked, 
" This is gloomy, grand, and peculiar." Possibly 
no other sentence could so aptly describe the 
scene. 

Forty miles from Chicoutimi the river expands 



4 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

to form Lake St. John, a larger body of fresh 
water than either the Hudson or St. John river 
possesses. The lake is fed by the Askaapmou- 
chowan, Mistassini and Peribonka rivers, all 
great streams, flowing through the unexplored 
wilderness of Northern Quebec. Between the 
lake and Chicoutimi the descent is considerable, 
affording plenty of " rapid-shooting " for ambi- 
tious canoeists. 

The Hudson is the most, as the Saguenay is 
the least, densely populated of the three rivers 
under discussion. None of the tributaries, small 
or large, are unmapped or unexplored ; and only 
those rising in the Adirondacks attract the sports- 
man and lover of wild life. While almost as 
mountainous as the lower Saguenay, the various 
elevations are much less precipitous, affording 
rarely beautiful sites for residences and summer 
hotels. Here and there an historic fortress may 
be seen, perched Rhinelike on some beetling crag, 
and near the water's edge, on both sides of the 
river, many tunnels and excavations have been 
made in the construction of the two great rail- 
ways that carry the bulk of traffic between " the 
Empire City " and the West. 

The St. John is less grand than the Hudson, 
less impressive than the Saguenay, but excels 
both in the diversity of its natural features. For 
seventy-five miles, commencing at the source, it 
flows through a great forest, the home of the 



INTRODUCTORY. 5 

moose, caribou, deer, bear, and beaver. Then 
scattered settlements appear, or isolated houses, 
separated from all others of their kind by wide 
expanses of woodland and rough water. One 
hundred and ten miles from the source, these set- 
tlements begin to be connected by a continuous 
road, and the valley is good for agriculture, and 
peopled almost exclusively by the French. At 
Grand Falls, midway between the source and 
mouth, the character of the civilization changes, 
the French colonists having been gradually sup- 
planted by others, chiefly of English, Irish, and 
Scottish origin. 

The physical features alter in a manner quite 
equally marked as the distance from the source 
increases. Sluggish waters flowing through des- 
olate barrens, or lowlands covered with a dense 
growth of spruces and firs, are succeeded by miles 
of swift current and rocky rapids. Below Alla- 
gash the stream widens, and incloses many allu- 
vial islands of great fertility. At the Grand Falls 
the water plunges over a precipice nearly eighty 
feet high, and careers tumultuously through a 
rocky gorge. The current is very rapid below 
the falls, and remains so almost to Fredericton, 
while the hills surrounding the valley are quite 
high, and generally under cultivation. Between 
Fredericton and Belleisle the current is sluggish, 
and the river broadens and deepens, once more 
inclosing a multitude of islands, all of alluvial 



6 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

deposit. Lastly the country assumes a mountain- 
ous cliaracter, although the elevations cannot 
compare with those of the Hudson or the Sague- 
nay, and great parallel arms or lakes extend east- 
ward, offering almost unrivaled facilities for in- 
land navigation. It would be idle to say that the 
St. John is more or less interesting than the Hud- 
son, or the Hudson than the Saguenay, as opinions 
vary in this regard with the peculiar tastes, or 
nativity, of the persons who offer them. 

Measured from the St. John Ponds at the 
source of the South Branch to the Bay of Fundy, 
the St. John is probably four hundred and f orty- 
si:x miles long, or a little more than one tenth the 
length of the longest river in the world, the Mis- 
sissippi, measured from the source of the Missouri 
to the Gulf of Mexico. It is one hundred and 
fifty miles longer than the Hudson, and somewhat 
more than half as long as the Rhine, while the 
drainage basin has been computed at twenty-six 
thousand square miles, about one ninetieth that 
of the Amazon. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 

THE BAKER AND SOUTHWEST BRANCHES. 

Of the two streams which form, by their uni- 
tion, the St. John River, one rises in a group of 
very small ponds distant one hundred and fifty 
miles from the Atlantic coast and eighty-two 
miles from the St. Lawrence River, the other in 
a small lake, named Lac St. Jean, about twenty 
miles farther westward. The first of these, 
usually called the Baker, or South Branch, is 
somewhat longer than the second, or Boundary 
Branch ; but when standing on the point at the 
junction of the two streams, it is difficult to deter- 
mine which is the larger in volmne, by reason of 
their close resemblance. Both lie in an absolutely 
unbroken wilderness, large tracts of swampy for- 
est land and low hills being the characteristic 
features of the region. As might be expected, 
these forests abound with moose, deer, and caribou. 
The deer are rapidly increasing in number, and 
one often hears them lowing at night, and splash- 
ing about the marshes, or surprises them in the 
water, while paddling swiftly and noiselessly 
around the many bends of the stream. The 



8 THE ST. JOHN BIVER. 

moose are diminishing here, as elsewhere, and 
must eventually share the fate of the buffaloes on 
the Western prairies. 

The Southwest or Boundary Branch is impor- 
tant as forming for some distance the Interna- 
tional Boundary, here dividing the Province of 
Quebec from the State of Maine, and there is a 
monument on it, erected by the boundary commis- 
sioners. Sportsmen seldom visit it, there being 
no convenient way of reaching the upper waters 
except by ascending the stream. The Baker 
Branch, on the contrary, which rises in seven or 
eight small ponds (the latter forming the real 
sources of the St. John), may be quite easily 
reached by a carry of two miles from the North- 
east Branch of the Penobscot. The streams 
flowing from these ponds unite and empty into St. 
John Pond, some two miles and one half long by 
one mile broad. Eighteen miles of canoeable 
stream connect St. John Pond with Baker Lake, 
a rather uninteresting body of water about three 
miles long, surrounded by low, thickly wooded 
hills, and often inaccurately spoken of as the 
source of the St. John Kiver. Above the lake a 
large brook enters the Baker stream from the west, 
a rough and rocky brook to navigate, but one af- 
fording another portage to the Northeast Branch 
of the Penobscot, at Abakcotnetick Bog. For a 
few miles below Baker Lake the water runs over 
a ledge-obstructed, bowlder-strewn bed in a sue- 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 9 

cession of active little rapids ; then begin the 
" deadwaters," ^ so characteristic of the region. 

The Southwest Branch is similar to the Baker, 
being rapid for several miles above the mouth, 
and sluggish in its middle course. The distance 
to the Bay of Fundy from the head of Baker 
Lake, following the river, is four hundred and 
twenty-three miles, and from the fork of the two 
branches four hundred and two miles. 

THE NORTHWEST BRANCH. 

The St. John is rapid at first below the forks, 
and then flows placidly on to the junction of the 
Northwest Branch, twelve miles below the Baker. 
This branch is larger than the others, and at the 
mouth is very wide and shallow, and strewn with 
bowlders. Eight miles from the St. John it 
forks, the principal branch being called the Daa- 
quam, or Quam, while the smaller one retains 
the name of the main stream, — a geographical 
misnomer, quite as apparent, although hardly as 
important, as the Mississippi-Missouri one. Ca- 
noeists may reach the Quam by road from St. 
Valier, a station on the Intercolonial Railway, 

■'• The writer introduces the term " deadwater, " as one of 
marked local significance, and apologizes in advance for a fre- 
quent use of it. When a stream becomes tortuous and deep, 
with a current almost imperceptible in the summer months, and 
the banks are low and covered with rank marsh grass, or 
densely tangled thickets of alder bushes, the natives call it a 
" deadwater." 



10 THE ST. JOHN EIVEB. 

twenty-three miles east of Quebec city. The dis- 
tance is forty-six miles. Then twenty-two miles 
of down-stream paddling brings them to the St. 
John River, the first fourteen miles being on the 
Daaquam, where the water is " dead" (technically 
speaking), and the banks richly wooded. Lum- 
bermen say that the best timber cut above Alla- 
gash comes from the various tributaries of the 
Northwest Branch, all of which, excepting the 
headwaters of a few small brooks, lie in a wilder- 
ness as yet uninvaded by other than the canoeist, 
hunter, and woodsman. Small trout are quite 
numerous in some of these waters, but the sports- 
man is advised to go elsewhere if fishing is his 
primary object. 

Some years ago the Northwest Branch was 
the scene of a mournful tragedy. A Frenchman, 
traveling in the wood, stepped suddenly upon a 
steel trap, attached by a chain, in the usual way, 
to a heavy spruce log, and covered with brush 
and moss. His foot was caught, and vain were 
all attempts to loosen it. Imprisoned in a track- 
less forest, mocked by the echoes of his cries for 
help, he met a lingering death by famine and 
exposure. Bears are usually caught by steel 
traps, and they have been known to drag the 
heavy chains and logs for some distance, and 
finally gnaw their captured paws off, while strug- 
gling savagely for freedom. 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 11 

SEVEN ISLANDS AND VICINITY. 

Between the Northwest Branch and Seven 
Islands, twenty-six miles, the river is wide, shal- 
low, rocky, and rapid. The rapids are not bad 
enough to worry a veteran canoeist, but the main 
St. John, and in fact all tributaries above Alla- 
gash, drop so low in occasional dry seasons that 
it becomes almost impossible to navigate them at 
all. Some gentlemen from Boston — and they 
were veterans too, fearing nothing from the moose 
to the mosquito — spent eight days in wading 
and dragging a canoe from the St. Valier road to 
the Islands. At that time, however, the water 
was exceptionally low. 

Burntland Brook, which enters the river from 
the north, six miles below the Northwest Branch, 
has a deep pool near the mouth, where, at times, 
trout of the first magnitude may be caught in 
abundance. The Northwest Rapid, also, is re- 
puted to be a good fishing-ground. 

Seven Islands, the most remote settlement on 
the St. John, was founded about sixty-five years 
ago, and named inappropriately from the presence 
of thirteen alluvial islands that here obstruct the 
channel. It now consists of half a dozen large 
and comfortable farms, having no means of com- 
munication with the rest of the civilized world 
but by the river and a rough wood road leading 
to St. Pamphile, a small village of Quebec sit- 



12 THE ST. JOHN BIVEI'.. 

uated thirty-six miles from tlie St. Lawrence at 
L'Islet. The road traverses the most aggravating 
sloughs and swamps, and travelers who reach the 
Islands that way generally prefer to return by 
water. As a good portage, thirteen miles in 
length, connects the Currier farm at The Islands 
with Harvey's Depot farm on the AUagash, the 
tourist is advised to cross over and enjoy the su- 
perior sporting facilities of that stream. 

FROM THE ISLANDS TO THE ALLAGASH. 

Below Seven Islands, and almost all the way to 
Allagash, a distance of fifty miles, the St. John 
is shallower, and even more rocky and turbulent 
than it is above the Islands, and two rapids, the 
most dangerous on the river, are found here. 
One, called " Big Black Eiver Rapid," where the 
water falls for half a mile over ledges of slate, in 
a channel plentifully bestrewn with jagged bowl- 
ders, is a mile above Big Black River, and twenty 
miles below the Islands ; while the other, called 
the " Big Rapid," begins about three miles above 
Little Black River, and forms a succession of 
small cascades and frothy pools, aggregating 
nearly two miles in length. Fewer ledges appear 
in the " Big " than in the Big Black River Rapid, 
but more bowlders obstruct the channel ; both are 
very dangerous for other than the experienced 
native to navigate. In the spring, when the 
waves are heavy, bateaux are often swamped, and 



I 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 13 

occasionally a life is lost ; yet in spite of these 
great rapids, and many smaller ones, heavy tow- 
boats, laden with horses, hay, and lumbermen's 
supplies, ascend the river, at medium water, to 
the Baker Branch. Heavy horses, used to wading 
over the roughest river bottom, supply the power, 
and the stream-drivers, with ropes and poles, 
strive diligently to keep the unwieldy craft in the 
proper channel. 

Navigation is certainly bad, whether for canoe 
or bateau, between the Northwest Branch and 
Allagash, and the scenery is, as a rule, monoto- 
nous, and nowhere very picturesque. A few 
scattered settlers are found, principally aromid 
the mouths of the Little Black and Chemquassa- 
bamticook rivers, but having no means of com- 
munication with the outside world, except by the 
rough river, their mode of life is very primitive. 
One man, the solitary occupant of a frame house 
on the left bank, eleven miles from his next door 
neighbor, was, a few years ago, forgetting hu- 
man speech, and finding it quite a difficult task 
to think of words proper for the conveyance of the 
most ordinary ideas. Above the Big Rapids 
lived a family of which no member had ever seen 
a railway or a telegraph wire. Some of the boys 
had never seen a photograph, or even an ordinary 
highway road. The mother had traveled as far 
as Edmundston, or Little Falls, which she impli- 
citly believed to be a metropolis of colossal pro- 



14 THE ST. JOHN EIVER. 

portions. Certainly tlie education of the " Chem- 
quassabamticookers " has been neglected in some 
respects, but they have a vast knowledge of wood- 
craft, canoe -poling and stream - driving, all of 
wkicli sciences are sadly neglected in our greater 
universities. 

Canoe-poling really is a science. The polers 
gradually urge the canoe to the foot of the rapid, 
where the water tumbles and tosses furiously 
through narrow channels, separated by bowlders 
or ledges ; and then, glancing hastily up-stream 
to determine which of these tortuous channels is 
straightest or deepest, they give a sturdy shove, 
and the bow of the frail craft is almost buried in 
the foaming waters. When the force of the first 
push is spent, the bow is often out of water, the 
stern deeply sunk in the frothy pool below. 
Then the bow-poler digs his pole into some 
crevice between the rocks, and there holds it, 
trembling with the mighty force of the current, 
until the stern man has reset his own pole a few 
feet up the stream, and prepared for another her- 
culean effort. So great is the power of the water, 
that a deviation of but a few inches from the 
direction of its flow may cause 'the canoe to be 
swung broadside upon some sharp and jagged 
rock. The Indians consider it more dangerous 
to descend some of the longer rapids than to pole 
up, as in places where unexpected peculiarities 
in the channel necessitate a sudden change of 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 15 

course, the canoe may have attained a momentum 
extremely difficult to check. 

BIG AND LITTLE BLACK RIVEKS. 

The Big Black River rises west of St. Pamphile 
in Quebec, runs about forty-five miles, and emp- 
ties into the St. John twenty-one miles below 
Seven Islands. The headwaters of both the main 
stream and Depot stream, or principal western 
branch, interlock with the Northwest Branch of 
the St. John. The river lies almost totally in 
the wilderness, but a few tributaries traverse the 
clearings of St. Pamphile, and the road to Seven 
Islands crosses the main stream and Depot 
Branch. The word "depot," in sylvan dialect, 
means a storage camp where lumbermen resort 
for supplies. One of these is on the Depot 
Branch. The hunters choose various places for 
storing provisions, including the hollowed trunks 
of old decayed trees. On one occasion a novice 
and his guide were lost, and the novice express- 
ing anxiety about the meagre food supply, the 
guide jocosely remarked : " I can kick bread and 
molasses out of most any stump." 

At average water the canoeing is good below 
St. Pamphile, and the principal branches of Black 
River are also more or less navigable. The 
Indian name of the river is Chimpassacoutie ; of 
its North Branch, Metawaakwamis. Very exten- 
sive deadwaters occur both on the main stream 



16 THE ST. JOHN EIVEE. 

and tributaries. The fishing is poor, but game 
quite plentiful, — deer especially so. 

The two Black Eivers have been named from 
the dark color of their waters ; a color partly- 
derived, it seems, from the numerous deadwaters, 
where the soft muddy banks are easily eroded, 
and much vegetable matter settles and decays. 
They are not the sole cause, however, as some 
streams are wine-colored from organic or mineral 
impurities above the deadwaters, and the little 
Oroquois River, below Edmundston, is quite haK 
deadwater, yet very clear. 

Little Black River, having the same general 
characteristics as Big Black, enters the St. John 
three miles above Allagash. A few settlers live 
at the mouth, above which the whole river basin 
is surrounded by what Thoreau calls " the grim 
untrodden wilderness, whose tangled labyrinth of 
living, fallen and decaying trees only the deer 
and moose, the bear and woK can easily pene- 
trate." 

The settlers are very poor. When an explorer 
was about to throw away a well-picked ham bone, 
the guide arrested his arm, saying that he would 
take it to one of the houses, where the gift woidd 
be appreciated, — probably as a suitable ingredi- 
ent for soup. 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 17 

LAC DE l'eST. 

About midway between Big and Little Black 
rivers the St. John receives the Chemquassabam- 
ticook, a considerable stream flowing from Lac 
de L'Est. The AUagash has a tributary of the 
same name, the natives pronouncing it " Se-bam- 
se-cook." 

Surrounded as it is by lofty forest-clad hills, 
that rise quite abruptly from the water's edge, 
Lac de L'Est presents more attractions than any 
other lake of the St. John system above the AUa- 
gash. It teems with mammoth trout, and the tou- 
ladi Qsalmo ferox) is equally plentiful. July is 
the best month for fishing. The only settlement 
is the little plantation of the Indian Louis John, 
connected by thirteen miles of very rough wood 
road with the French settlements southeast of 
Kamouraska. The lake measures nine miles 
in length, and the international boundary crosses 
it two miles above the outlet. Natives say that 
the stream would be readily canoeable, at average 
water, from Lac de L'Est to the St. John, a dis- 
tance of eighteen miles, if the channel was freed 
from obstructions ; but a reliable explorer says : 
" I have seen the bed of the Chemquassabamti- 
cook perfectly dry in the latter part of August." 



18 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB, 
DRAINAGE AREAS. 

The total drainage area of the St. John, with 
tributaries, above the AUagash, is 2,950 square 
miles, of Big Black River, about 600 square miles, 
of the Northwest Branch, about 550 square miles, 
of the St. John, with tributaries, above the North- 
west Branch, 770 square miles, and of Little Black 
River, 310 square miles. 

The Seven Islands are 365 miles, and the 
mouth of the AUagash 315 miles, from the sea at 
St. John city. 

THE ALLAGASH RIVER. 

The Aroostook, Tobique, Jemseg, AUagash, and 
Madawaska are the ^Ye tributaries of the St. John 
having drainage areas over one thousand square 
miles in extent. That of the AUagash is 1,450 
miles, including the basins of the two principal 
branches, the Chemquassabamticook and Mus- 
quacook. The river is more picturesque, and in 
every way more attractive than the main St. John 
above it ; the waters abound with fish ; the neigh- 
boring forests with moose, deer, and caribou. 
Beaver are found on the small tributary brooks, 
but not more frequently than on other remote 
watercourses in Northern Maine and New Bruns- 
wick. 

The source of the AUagash is not over ten 
miles, in a straight line, from the junction of the 



I 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 19 

Southwest and Baker branches of the St. John, 
and the river flows easterly at first, through AUa- 
gash Lake into Chamberlain Lake. Allagash 
Lake may be reached by portage from Poland 
Brook, a stream flowing indirectly into the West 
Branch of the Penobscot, and is quite large, with 
precipitous rocky shores on the western side. 
Travelers say the fishing is good near the river's 
inlet. A courageous canoeist may ascend the Alla- 
gash for many miles above the lake and portage 
to Lac Yule, the head of the Chemquassabamti- 
cook ; but novices are respectfully advised to re- 
frain from any such undertaking. 

From Allagash Lake to Allagash Pond, a dis- 
tance of two or three miles, the current is rapid ; 
and between the pond and Chamberlain Lake 
there are two falls, many rapids, and several lit- 
tle dead waters. From Mud Pond, which con- 
nects with Chamberlain Lake by a small, sluggish 
brook, a well-known portage, two miles in length, 
leads to the Umbazookscus Lake and Stream, the 
latter waters flowing into the West Branch of 
the Penobscot. Many travelers from Moosehead 
Lake pass this way, the carry having been much 
improved in recent years. Thoreau, who crossed 
it in 1857, says : " I would not have missed that 
walk for a good deal. If you want an exact re- 
ceipt for making such a road, take one part Mud 
Pond, and dilute it with equal parts of Umba- 
zookskus and Apmoojenegamook ; then send a f am- 



20 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

ily of musquash tlirough to locate it, look after 
tlie grades and culverts, and finish it to their 
minds, and let a hurricane follow to do the fen- 
cing." 

The Fish, Madawaska, Jemseg, and Allagash 
rivers probably have more lake surface within 
their collective drainage basins, — if we exclude 
the bays and fiords of the lower St. John, — than 
all other tributaries combined. Over one hundred 
lakes and ponds pay tribute to the Allagash, and 
of these. Chamberlain Lake is much the largest. 
The famous Chamberlain farm, where supplies 
may be obtained, is the only settlement to break the 
monotony of its forest-clad shores. Eagle Lake, 
sixteen miles long, is next below Chamberlain, 
and next in size, connecting with Churchill Lake 
or Wallagasquequam, the third in the chain, by 
a still-water thoroughfare. Several brooks fall 
into Eagle Lake, which is irregular in outline, 
and very picturesque, inclosing a couple of large 
wooded islands. Pillsbury Island is the more 
southerly of these, and, almost opposite. Smith 
Brook flows in from the east, a stream " canoe- 
able " to its source in Haymock Lake. Russell, 
Soper, and Snare are three other large brooks en- 
tering the Allagash in Eagle Lake ; all fairly good 
trout streams, partially navigable for canoes. 
Thorous'hfare Brook above Churchill Lake is 
also a considerable stream, much resembling those 
last named. 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 21 

Below the outlet of Chamberlain Lake, the 
lumbermen have, for many years, maintained a 
dana, by means of which, and a canal connecting 
Chamberlain and Telos lakes with Webster 
Brook, the most material part of the upper Alla- 
gash is turned down the East Branch of the Pe- 
nobscot. Thus we have the rare phenomenon of 
one stream entering two rivers. Chamberlain 
Lake forms the connecting link, and, in the 
freshet season especially, flows both east and 
north, like the Cassaquiare in South America, a 
stream joining the Orinoco River with the Rio 
Negro, a branch of the Amazon. 

The effect of such a dam upon lake scenery is 
truly startling. The sandy beaches disappear, the 
waves break rudely on the forest, the stately trees, 
beaten by drifting ice, rotted by unnatural sub- 
mersion, fall prone upon the water; and their 
weakened, sapless trunks are piled in much con- 
fusion against the dense green wood behind, form- 
ing a tangled maze of stumps, and roots, and 
branches, on which the stormy waters vainly 
break. So does Nature seemingly resent the spoli- 
ation of her works by man. 

A few rods below Churchill Lake are the ruins 
of another dam, which once stemmed back an im- 
mense body of water, and was erected by the Yan- 
kee lumbermen in order to drive the St. John 
lumber down the East Branch of the Penobscot, 
via Telos Lake, the New Brunswick government 



22 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

having levied a duty on logs cut in Maine, in al- 
leged violation of the Treaty of 1842.^ The dam 
was finally destroyed by a party of men in the 
employ of John Grlazier, Esq., of Fredericton, and 
so great was the volume of water discharged that 
the St. John River rose three feet at Grand Falls, 
one hundred and sixty-five miles away. 

^ Sec. 111. Of tlie Treaty between the States and Great 
Britain, 1842. In order to promote the interests and encourage 
the industry of all the inhabitants of the countries watered by the 
River St. John's and its tributaries, whether living- within the 
State of Maine or the Province of New Brunswick, it is agreed 
that where, by the provisions of the present treaty, the River St. 
John's is declared to be the line of boundary, the navigation of 
the said river shall be free and open to both parties, and shall in 
no way be obstructed by either ; that all the produce of the for- 
est in logs, lumber, timber, boards, staves, or shingles, or of agri- 
culture, not being manufactured, grown on any of those parts of 
the State of Maine watered by the River St. John's or by its trib- 
utaries, of which fact reasonable evidence shall, if required, be 
produced, shall have free access into and through the said river 
audits tributaries, having their source within the State of Maine, 
to and from the seaport at the mouth of the River St. John's, and 
to and from the falls of the said river, either by boats, rafts, or 
by other conveyance ; that, when within the Province of New 
Brunswick, the said produce shall be dealt with as if it were the 
produce of the said province ; that, in like manner, the inhabit- 
ants of the territory of the upper St. John's, determined by this 
treaty to belong to her Britannic majesty, shall have free access 
to and through the river for their produce, in those parts where 
the said river runs wholly through the State of Maine : Provided, 
always, That this agreement shall give no right to either party 
to interfere with any regulations not inconsistent with the terms 
of the treaty, which the governments, respectively, of Maine or 
of New Brunswick may make respecting the navigation of said 
river, where both banks thereof shall belong to the same party. 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 23 

For half a mile below tlie ruined dam there are 
rapids, the worst on the Allagash, but pigmies 
when compared with those near Black River on 
the St. John. In the very midst of one of them, 
called the " Devil's Elbow," the canoeist must 
cross at a right angle with the current, or be 
dashed on jagged rocks, upset, and wrecked. 
With a loaded canoe strong hands and steady 
nerves are required to avoid some such calamity, 
and the novice had better explore the portage 
called Chase's carry. 

Churchill Lake is a delightful expanse of water, 
about six miles long by four broad, receiving, 
like Eagle Lake, the contributions of many brooks. 
Two of these brooks, called the " Twins," enter 
from the southwest, the North Twin being the 
outlet of Spider Lake, a dark and deep water, 
swarming with different fishes, and named from 
its very irregular shore line. A small brook 
struggles in at the head of Spider Lake through a 
rather grewsome cedar swamp, where a portage 
leads to the deadwater of the Munsungan, a 
branch of the Aroostook. Lidians often passed 
this way in former days, and in 1887 the writer 
observed a rude picture of a savage chief, carry- 
ing a birch canoe, which was carved on a tree 
trunk, with certain signs to indicate the portage. 

A lone hunter lives on Spider Lake, guarding 
a depot camp. His sole companion is a cat, which, 
for the sake of increased proficiency in keeping 



24 THE ST. JOHN EIVEE. 

troublesome rodents from tlie supplies, is com- 
pelled to live on wliat it captures vi et armis. 
We saw it pounce upon a mouse, and swallow the 
unfortunate animal, yet squeaking, with no more 
attempt at mastication than a commercial trav- 
eler makes in a railway restaurant. 

An interesting trip, through a picturesque, un- 
broken wilderness, is that from Spider Lake, via 
Pleasant and Harrow lakes, to the Musquacook, 
the second in length and volume of the many 
tributaries of the Allagash. The portage to Pleas- 
ant Lake is a mile and a half long, and that from 
Pleasant to Harrow Lake a little over a mile. All 
told there are six lakes on the main Musquacook 
stream, the uppermost one. Clear Lake, nestling 
at the base of Round Mountain, and affording 
some striking scenery. The others are connected 
by navigable thoroughfares, and the old wood 
road from Seven Islands to Allagash passes near 
the outlet of the first lake, from which point it 
is a ten-mile walk to Harvey's Depot farm on the 
Allagash. Musquacook stream, below the lakes, 
is usually navigable for canoes. 

Long Lake, the nucleus of the Allagash sys- 
tem, is, like Chamberlain, Eagle, and Churchill 
lakes, a mere fluvial expansion. It is ten miles 
long and divided by a narrow thoroughfare into 
two parts, called, respectively. Upper and Lower 
Umsaskis. The Chemquassabamticook River 
(already mentioned), which unites with the Up- 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 25 

per Umsaskis, is navigable for canoes to Lac 
Yule, although, for the most part, a broad and 
shallow stream. Lac Yule is one of the largest 
lakes of the AUagash country, and was repre- 
sented on early maps, when the region was little 
explored, as draining into the St. John River 
above Seven Islands. Both Upper and Lower 
Umsaskis are charmingly picturesque, and afford 
excellent opportunities for angler and hunter. 
One Harvey, a famous woodsman, thoroughly 
conversant with the geographical intricacies of 
the region, has a depot farm near the foot of the 
lower lake, where the traveler may take the 
portage to Currier's farm at the Seven Islands. 

It is questionable if a better river for the 
canoeist can be found anywhere than the AUa- 
gash below Harvey's. Almost everywhere the 
current is swift, and ever and anon the water 
dashes down a sand-bar, gradually narrowing as 
it descends, until a myriad of dancing pyramidal 
shaped waves are formed by the action of cross 
currents and eddies. These waves have been 
rather oddly termed "hay-stacks." The woods 
are rich in game, more especially near Petaguon- 
gomis, or Round Pond, an oval-shaped fluvial ex- 
pansion three miles above Musquacook. 

Above the Great Fall, fourteen miles from the 
mouth, the water scatters into many channels, 
which inclose a cluster of islands very similar to 
the Seven Islands on the St. John; and a few 



26 THE ST. JOHN BWEB. 

pioneer settlers live in this vicinity. The fall is 
almost thirty feet high, and second in magnitude 
among all waterfalls of the St. John River sys- 
tem. Below, the stream is rocky, with many 
rapids, of which those at Two Brooks are most 
exciting, although not dangerous. The waters 
finally discharge by two channels, which inclose 
Gardner's Island between them. 

The Allagash and St. Francis rivers are the 
only large tributaries of the St. John with well- 
formed deltas at their mouths. 

FEOM ALLAGASH TO ST. FRANCIS. 

The St. Jolm, as a really large river, com- 
mences at the mouth of the Allagash, the latter 
stream probably having a volume of discharge 
two thirds as great as that of the former above 
their junction. During the annual spring freshet 
the St. John is very much the larger, there being 
few lakes to store flood water ; but as it falls so 
low in the dry season, there are undoubtedly times 
when the Allagash becomes the greater river. At 
Allagash, too, we find the commencement of a 
civilization which increases in complexity, gener- 
ally speaking, all the way to the Bay of Fundy ; 
and at Golden' s farm, four miles below, the na- 
tives enjoy no less a luxury than a carriage road. 

In the twelve miles between Allagash and St. 
Francis some lively rapids appear. Nigger Brook, 
Cross Bock, Golden's and Rankin's rapids being 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 27 

most conspicuous ; while a lofty ridge, curiously 
serrated along the summit, and denuded by forest 
fires, rises abruptly on the north, lending a very 
distinct enchantment to the view. All the rapids 
are navigable, but, as the guide says: '^ Prenez 
garde les grandes roches.^^ 

The Cobobscoose or Nigger Brook (the latter 
name was given because a negro stream-driver 
once found a watery grave there ; Cobobscoose is 
not the Algonquin word for " nigger ") enters 
near the rapid of the same name. It rises in 
Cobobscoose Lake, fifteen miles south of the St. 
John, and is, at the mouth, a noisy torrent of very 
clear water, giving promise of trout in the more 
quiet turns above. 

THE ST. FRANCIS RIVER. 

The St. Francis well merits description as a 
river interesting alike to all classes of sportsmen. 
Rising in a small lake of the same name, but 
twelve miles from the seacoast east of Riviere du 
Loup, the stream actually twists across the water- 
shed from the St. Lawrence side. It is about 
seventy-five miles long and drains about seven 
hundred square miles. 

The old Temiscouata portage (a military road) 
and the recently constructed Temiscouata Valley 
Railway cross the river five miles below St. 
Francis Lake, and from there down the canoeing 
is continuously good, excepting a few natural 



28 THE ST. JOHN EIVEB. 

dams of logs and drift stuff, all in the first fifteen 
miles. In one place, where the stream permeates 
such a tangled thicket of alders that the branches 
and twigs have knotted in a common mass across 
the water, the ^'' prenez garde " of our infallible 
guide is intermingled with the more unpardonable 
exclamation, " Sacre ! " 

Pohenagamook, on the western shore of Bound- 
ary Lake, a village of two or three hundred souls, 
— French souls, — and the first settlement below 
the railway crossing, is connected with Sto Alex- 
andre on the St. Lawrence by a road twenty-six 
miles long. The lake is nine miles long, narrow 
and deep. Hills uprise on all sides ; the alter- 
nation of wooded slopes with patches of cultivated 
land and fields of charred stumps adding a variety 
to the landscape. 

From Boundary Lake to the mouth, a distance 
of forty miles, the St. Francis forms the inter- 
national boundary. For twenty-five miles, com- 
mencing at the lake, Maine is on the west side, 
and Quebec on the east ; for the remainder of the 
distance Maine still on the west side, but New 
Brunswick on the east. 

Receiving in Boundary Lake the waters of 
Smoke River, and in the deadwater below those 
of Sal-way-e-sip, or Wild Cat Brook, and yet lower 
down the addition of Dead Brook, the St. Francis 
becomes a much more considerable stream, and 
glides so rapidly around a series of sharp turns 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 29 

that a canoe is in danger of being slapped against 
the bank, or carried under overhanging brush. 
On a late journey both these mishaps occurred. 
Below the round turns come the Kelly Rapids, 
which are said to be two miles long, but canoes 
have descended in eleven minutes, during high 
water, however long they are. The trout-fishing 
is very good occasionally, both in the rapids and 
in the deadwater below Boundary Lake. 

Blue River, the one really large tributary, enters 
from the east, twelve miles below Pohenagamook. 
It is the first clear-water stream of the St. John 
system that we have yet met, and has two prin- 
cipal branches rising near Notre Dame de St. 
Louis du Ha Ha, a village on the Temiscouata 
road. About forty miles of its waters would be 
canoeable but for numerous " jams " of driftwood 
and fallen trees. In the summer of 1887 the 
East Branch was so choked with lumber, prostrate 
trees, old roots, and bushes, that two explorers 
were obliged to abandon their canoe and outfit, 
walk through the woods to the forks, and descend 
the main stream straddled on a cedar log. On 
this quixotic voyage they were carried backward 
over a smooth rapid, sent crashing through a mass 
of brush which overhung the eddying pool below, 
stranded on a sunken root, and ultimately over- 
turned. Their feet, always in the icy water, were 
scraped on sand-bars over which the unmanage- 
able log passed with much velocity, and a lack 



30 THE ST. JOHN RIVER. 

of shelter, warmth, and food added mucli to their 
discomfort. While Blue River is a much purer 
stream than the St. Francis, the trout-fishing is 
greatly inferior, — a strange fact, considering the 
habit of the trout to follow the clearest water. 
The region is an excellent one for caribou and 
bears. 

At the Nadeau farm, three miles below Blue 
River, a good portage, also of three miles, leads 
to Cabineau Lake. 

Beau Lake is quite what the name implies, — a 
beautiful sheet of water, nine miles long by two 
broad, surrounded by hills and forests as nearly 
virgin as one is apt to find in these days. Below 
the lake the river is very peculiar, appearing like 
a great stream newly turned down a wooded valley, 
no sufficient time having elapsed for the wearing 
out of an ordinary river channel. First we find 
a pond, then a lively rapid, then another pond or 
lake. The water rushes laterally from Cross Lake 
in a rapid called the " Mill Privilege," so close to 
the lake as to be easily seen one third way out 
from shore ; while the outlet is so narrow that a 
canoeist might well pass by, and find himself in a 
natural cul-de-sac at the lower end. Below the 
Mill Privilege come the winding ledges, with 
more rapids, the stream here being exactly paral- 
lel with the lower part of Cross Lake, from which 
it has just escaped. Then come more ponds, small 
and cup-shaped, then Glazier Lake, or Woolas- 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 31 

tookpectawaagomic, ^ve miles long and very pic- 
turesque ; tlien rapids again to tlie St. John River. 
The greatest depth of Beau Lake is about 150 
feet ; of Glazier Lake, 115 feet. A peculiarly- 
pleasant feature of St. Francis scenery is the ap- 
proach of forest growth to the very water's edge ; 
but as the scenery is enhanced thereby, so is the 
convenience of beaching canoes diminished. 

Fall Brook, named from two waterfalls each 
twenty or thirty feet high, and flowing from Fall 
Brook Lake near the valley of Little Black River, 
pours in from the west, one mile below Glazier 
Lake. A mile or so above the Second Fall begins 
the famous deadwater, where the trout supply, 
after many years of fishing, has literally proved 
inexhaustible. Very few of the fish are large, but 
an occasional one weighs three pounds. 

Few canoemen leave the St. Francis without 
regret, as it is, par excellence, a river of pretty 
lakes and lively rapids. The water supply of all 
these rivers is largely regulated by the lake ex- 
tent within their respective areas. The AUagash, 
St. Francis, Tish, and Madawaska rivers have 
good water at all times, while the St. John, above 
AUagash, and the Aroostook, become very low in 
dry seasons. Green River and the Tobique usu- 
ally have good water, although their lake areas 
are comparatively small ; probably because they 
are more largely fed by springs than are the 
other tributaries. 



32 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

FROM ST. FRANCIS TO FORT KENT. 

Between St. Francis and Fort Kent, a distance 
of eighteen miles, tlie St. Jolin is generally wide 
and shallow, the channel often splitting to inclose 
a grassy island, fringed with bushes and stately 
elm-trees. The water is rapid, or " strong " as 
the natives say, and falls with extraordinary ve- 
locity and much uproar over numerous sand-bars. 
On each side are broad intervales, backed by hills 
of uneven contour. Many consider this the most 
picturesque portion of the river. The interna- 
tional boundary follows the thread of the stream 
for seventy-two miles, beginning at St. Francis ; 
the first road on the English side begins below 
St. Francis stream ; and a one-train-a-day railway 
follows the valley from Edmnndston. At St. 
Francis, also, the character of the colonization 
alters greatly, the people above being of English 
descent, the people below almost exclusively of 
French. 

Among the French we find a very peculiar class 
called " Jumpers," an unfortunate people afflicted 
with an hereditary nervous malady that causes 
them to do the most extraordinary things, when 
influenced by unusual excitement resulting from 
unexpected sensations of touch and sound. A 
loud shout, a sudden blow, or a rifle-crack arouses 
the latent trouble, which manifests itself for but 
a brief interval, leaving its subject a victim to 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN, 33 

remorse or shame. When some " Jumpers " were 
taking their luncheon, while " logging," and a by- 
stander shouted " Strike ! " the men are said to 
have thrown their knives and platters about most 
recklessly, and at a later day one of these un- 
happy men is said to have jumped on a revolving 
saw when thus unduly influenced. In 1883, 
while ascending the Madawaska River, the writer 
was requested by his guide, a self-acknowledged 
"Jumper," to warn him before loudly calling to 
people on the bank, as otherwise he might drop 
his pole and overturn the canoe. The " Jump- 
ers " seem to have originated in one locality, 
which was, we believe, on the American side of 
the boundary line and above St. Francis. 

THE GEEAT FISH RIVER. 

At Fort Kent, where stands an old block-house, 
a monument of the " bloodless " Aroostook War, 
Great Fish River enters the St. John from the 
south. It is ninety-five miles long, measuring from 
the source of the West Branch, with a drainage 
area of nine hundred and fifty square miles, thus 
ranking sixth among the tributaries of the St. 
John. 

The East Branch is a mere succession of great 
lakes, with thoroughfares of quick water between, 
so little known a half -century ago that a surveyor 
remarked : " We are pretty certain that they have 
never been explored by any agent of the State, 



34 THE ST. JOHN BIVEE. 

and all that is known respecting them is derived 
from the French at Madawaska." Long Lake, 
twelve miles in length by two in breadth, is the 
head of the chain, and attainable by a portage of 
only five miles from the St. John at Frenchville. 
Curiously enough, the canoeist, by making this 
short carry, can paddle down sixty-five miles of 
river and lake to his starting point. Such a cir- 
cuitous flow of water forms a not uncommon geo- 
graphical feature of the country, a similar voyage 
being possible on Madawaska water, as will be 
seen hereafter. Mud, Cross, and Square lakes 
are other expansions of the East Branch ; Square 
probably having as large a superficial area as 
Long Lake, although shaped more compactly. 

Limestone Point, on its western shore, affords 
good camping facilities, and often a refuge from 
flies. When one has undergone the torture of 
continual poisonous injections, he appreciates the 
relief afforded by even a temporary cessation of 
attacks from those carnivorous outlaws, " les 

The northwestern shore of Long Lake is under 
cultivation, but Mud, Cross, and Square lakes are 
completely encompassed by those evergreen forests 
that seem to exercise an influence similar to that 
of the sea over the habits and thoughts of men, 
when once inured to life within their dusky 
glades. 

" What is most striking in the Maine wilder- 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 35 

ness," says Thoreau, " is the continuousness of the 
forest, with fewer open intervals or glades than 
you had imagined. Except the few burnt lands, 
the narrow intervals on the river, the bare tops of 
the mountains, and the lakes and streams, the for- 
est is uninterrupted. It is even more grim and 
wild than you had anticipated, — a damp and intri- 
cate wilderness, in the spring everywhere wet and 
miry." 

The woods are most impressive at night, when 
one reclines on his somewhat prickly bed of boughs 
and hears the wind moaning jnournfully among 
the treetops, while a deathly stillness prevails be- 
neath, broken only by an occasional crackling of 
branches, which the imagination oft attributes to 
the bear, the bull-moose, or the restless " Indian 
devil." The Indian devil is that animal which, 
when seen, is never believed to have been seen by 
anybody but the person who saw it. It varies in 
size, shape, and degree of ferocity. 

Many brooks feed the East Branch, at the 
mouths of which trout were once very niunerous. 
At present all the waters of this system are sadly 
overfished. 

Eagle Lake, in which the branches of Fish 
Eiver unite, is about fifteen miles long, and bent 
near the middle at a right angle. The landscape 
is very picturesque. The eastern arm, which re- 
ceives the East Branch, is wood-surrounded ; while 
the northern arm, where the Fish Eiver proper 



S6 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

emanates, is thickly settled on the western side. 
As a result of the great volume of water poured 
in during the freshets, we find a much greater 
space between high and low water marks than on 
any of the other lakes. 

The West Branch of Fish River, originating in 
Great Fish Lake, a basin supplied by large moun- 
tain brooks that interlock with the Musquacook 
and Machias rivers, is longer than the East 
Branch, and drains about four hundred and ninety 
square miles. The lake is attainable by canoe, 
after " portaging " by a small waterfall, and it is 
a naturally good water for trout, remote enough 
to prevent overfishing. The stately moose, also, 
monarch of the woods of Maine, pays frequent 
visits there, to wallow in the shallow water, and 
browse upon aquatic grasses and buds of water- 
lilies. Portage and Nadeau are the other West 
Branch lakes, the former seven, the latter nine 
miles long. Birch and Eed rivers, both navigable 
streams, enter Nadeau Lake, a water fringed by 
seemingly interminable forests. The sportsman 
should " try a cast " at their outlets, as well as at 
the mouths of rivulets. A stage road connects 
Portage Lake settlement with Ashland, or "No. 
11," on the Aroostook, crossing the West Branch 
a mile below Nadeau Lake. 

One of the most attractive streams in the coun- 
try, from the canoeist's point of view, is Great 
Fish River below Eagle Lake., The voliune of 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 37 

water is heavy, with an average depth of four 
feet, and the rapids almost continuous ; not dan- 
gerous rapids, nor rocky, but quick " shoots " that 
arouse a feeling somewhat like that of falling- 
through air. The surrounding hills are high, and 
afford a pleasing landscape. Unfortunately the 
stream is short, and " carries " must be made 
around the falls and the dam above Fort Kent. 

The natural Fish River Fall is about twenty 
feet high, and beautified by jutting ledges, that 
beat the falling waters till they roar with rage 
and seek revenge by trituration. 

The Allagash and Great Fish rivers are the 
only large affluents of the St. John flowing wholly 
within the State of Maine, and Fish River is the 
first stream, yet considered, on which a dam may 
be found, other than one constructed by lumber- 
men to facilitate stream-driving. May the other 
rivers remain dam-less for numerous generations ! 

FROM FORT KENT TO EDMUNDSTON. 

From Fort Kent to Edmundston (nineteen 
miles) the St. John is a swift-flowing river, con- 
taining fewer islands and sand-bars than char- 
acterize it immediately below St. Francis. An 
extensive intervale and low country surround the 
mouth of the Meruimpticook, or Baker Brook, but 
the valley contracts on nearing Edmundston. 
Fish River Rapid, two miles from the fort, is 
easy and pleasant to " shoot," and the current 



38 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

frequently breaks over rocks lying wholly or par- 
tially beneatk the surface. The once beautiful 
approach to Edmundston is ruined by the numer- 
ous railway cuttings. Alas ! railways, wherever 
found, seem destructive of natural scenery, and 
invariably more useful than ornamental. 

Edmundston, or Little Falls, a cosy village of 
one thousand people, and the most central start- 
ing point for the neighboring sporting grounds, is 
situated on both banks of the Madawaska Eiver, 
near its confluence with the St. John. It has an 
upper and a lower town, a host of indifferent 
hotels, a very multitude of whiskey shops. Here 
the St. Francis, Temiscouata, and Canadian Pa- 
cific railways have termini; the latter road fol- 
lowing the St. John to Woodstock, one hundred 
and fifteen miles away, and crossing at Upper 
Woodstock, Andover, and Grand Falls. Ed- 
mundston is half English, half French, and was 
named after Sir Edmund Head, to former gov- 
ernor of New Brunswick. 

THE MERUIMPTICOOK RIVER. 

The Meruimpticook, or Baker Brook (drainage 
area one hundred and fifty square miles), pours 
its pellucid waters into the St. John, with consid- 
erable vehemence, at a point thirteen miles above 
Edmundston. Meruimpticook Lake, the source 
of the north and principal branch, calmly reposes 
in a forest wilderness extending from the depress 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 39 

sion of Cabineau Lake to that of Temiscouata. 
It is narrow, but very deep, and surrounded by- 
hills which rise from the shore to heights varying 
between one hundred and fifty and three hundred 
feet. Strangely enough, sportsmen seldom visit 
this lake, notwithstanding its proximity to a well- 
settled country, and its excellent reputation as a 
fishing place and caribou ground. The natives 
call it " Jerry Lake." 

Baker Lake, five miles in length, which is 
drained by the west branch of the Meruimpti- 
cook, a short stream of rapid water, is well settled 
at the southern end, and may be reached from the 
St. John Eiver, at Caron Brook, by passing over 
five miles of tolerably good road. A portage of 
four miles — quite famous for its impassability in 
summer — connects the north end of Baker with 
the south end of Cabineau Lake ; another connects 
Baker and Enoch Baker lakes. Enoch Baker is 
a beautiful sheet of water, of considerable depth, 
with high hills rising on the western side, imme- 
diately from the water's edge. 

The Meruimpticook stream is about twenty-five 
miles long, measured from the lake of that name 
to the St. John River, and for the most part very 
rapid. Descending, we find a small fall quite 
near the outlet of the lake, where a dam has been 
built, and another, three feet high, above the 
west branch. Passing the west branch, we 
reach the Murray Fall, which may be navigated, 



40 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

and the Ziae Fall, nmcli the roughest spot on the 
Meruimpticook, where a portage must be made. 
A few miles above the mouth, and in the low 
country, begin the deadwaters, with all their cus- 
tomary features. That a stream should meander 
a little in sluggish places is not surprising, but 
the number of serpentine turns and twists in any 
given mile of one of these many deadwaters 
makes the weary canoeist despair of ever reach- 
ing his journey's end. Mr. Cooney, an early geo- 
grapher of New Brunswick, and one meriting 
praise for the animation and originality of his 
language, describes these crooked courses as the 
result of " a violent collision between impetuous 
freshets and strong lateral resistances ; " but his 
theory is somewhat incorrect, brooks being ever 
most tortuous where they permeate an easily 
eroded alluvium bed, and straightest where the 
currents are most impetuous. 

One large eastern branch enters the Meruimp- 
ticook. Who knows but what there may be a 
good-sized lake upon it? The region is almost 
unexplored. 

Trout are plentiful between Lake Meruimpti- 
cook and the Ziae Fall, some of them large and 
gamey. Altogether the river offers numerous at- 
tractions to the various classes of sportsmen. 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 41 



THE MADAWASKA KIVER. 

Although the Madawaska Eiver is one hundred 
and ten miles long, when measured up the Squa- 
took, the source is only thirty miles in a direct 
line from the mouth. In drainage area (eleven 
hundred and forty square miles) it ranks fifth 
among the St. John's tributaries, and it flows 
from many sources, the Squatook being the long- 
est branch, the Touladi the greatest in volume of 
discharge. The Squatook first runs due south, 
and then almost north, turning at a very acute 
angle. Beardsley Brook, which creeps lazily over 
a sandy bed overhung by projections and cano- 
pied by deflectant alders, enters near this angle, 
and forms a part of the well-known portage lead- 
ing to the main Madawaska at a point fifteen 
miles from Edmundston. Here, as on Fish River, 
we may make a short carry and have a down- 
stream paddle of seventy-five miles to our starting- 
point ; to add to which inducement the Squatook 
is a surpassingly attractive stream, having pure, 
clear water (teeming with fish), exciting rajDids, 
and beautiful lakes. Big Squatook Lake is nine 
miles long, with a few small but high and rocky 
islands dotting the surface; and from there to 
Sugar Loaf Lake (eleven miles) the water is al- 
most continuously rapid, flowing over a narrow 
bed often arched by boughs. Squatook " Fall," 
so called, is a mere navigable rapid, but a canoeist 



42 THE ST. JOHN BIVEE. 

must be on the qui vive when descending it. Not 
far below, a natural driftwood dam necessitates a 
short portage. 

Sugar Loaf Lake, the third in the Squatook 
chain, is named after Sugar Loaf Mountain, an 
isolated peak of very curious contour near the 
eastern shore. Near its centre, directly opposite 
the mountain, appears an elevated island, famous 
as a camping ground, where the most picturesque 
views can be obtained. Many trout are captured 
annually off the mouths of rivulets entering 
Sugar Loaf Lake, while other excellent fishing 
grounds, in season, are at the head of Big Squa- 
took Lake, and in the rapids above Squatook 
Tall. The Allagash is better for large game, but 
the Squatook, like Blue Kiver, has an unenviable 
reputation for bears. 

Bruin is not aggressive in his ordinary moods, 
but quite capable of attack when fairly brought 
to bay. It was on the Clearwater River that 
some explorers met a large she-bear with cubs, at 
a place where a circuitous rocky gorge cut off the 
beast's retreat. The bear charged ferociously; 
but a labyrinth of fallen trees and shrubbery con- 
siderably impeding her progress, the explorers 
were enabled to escape. The imperturbability of 
the ffuide on that occasion deserves notice. He 
looked incredulous at first, as if wondering at the 
animal's audacity in attacking so old and tried a 
hunter, and then remarked reproachfully, " Well, 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 43 

seein' as this is the first time we 've met, you 
makes yourself durn familiar." 

Twenty-five miles below Beardsley Brook port- 
age the Squatook and Touladi rivers unite, and 
half a mile above this fork the Eagle and Horton 
branches unite to form the Touladi. How curi- 
ously some rivers bunch together ! The Nictaux 
or Forks of the Tobique afford a yet more striking- 
illustration of the same phenomenon. 

The branches present a marked contrast. The 
Horton Branch is very clear and rapid, the Eagle 
Branch very dark and sluggish. In the deep pool 
where they meet, a fish, distinctly seen when 
swimming in the Horton water, disappears from 
view at once on entering the Eagle Branch. The 
Horton Branch and Green River have interlock- 
ing sources ; but it woidd be exceedingly difii«ult, 
perhaps impossible, to carry a canoe across the 
common watershed, and the former stream falls so 
quickly after a rain that the canoeist wishing to 
ascend must choose his time rather carefully. It 
widens at one part to form Lac des Outres, below 
which there is a gorge containing one fall from 
six to ten feet high, with small cascades below, 
a portage of half a mile leading from the fall to 
the deadwater below the lake. The Big Jam, 
a stupendous obstruction, famous throughout the 
country, is one mile from the mouth. An extreme 
crookedness in the channel, with a comparatively 
straight course above, probably fostered its for- 



44 THE ST. JOHN EWER. 

mation by allowing large quantities of driftwood 
and logs to accumulate freely ; but, however that 
may be, the Jam is now a mile long, and ever 
increasing. It is full of holes, through which is 
seen the gurgling stream beneath, and swarms 
with trout. Unfortunately the angler is apt to 
lose his tackle in the complex fabric of logs, roots, 
and branches on trying to fish there. The lum- 
bermen have excavated a flood channel for run- 
ning logs around. 

The Horton Branch is the first in a belt of 
clear-water rivers that extends, we believe, to the 
eastern extremity of Gaspe Peninsula, and in- 
cludes such famous streams as the Restigouche, 
Tobique, and Nepisiguit, with the larger tributa- 
ries of the Miramichi. It is a good trout stream, 
although deep pools are scarce. 

The Eagle Branch, flowing from Lac des Islets, 
near the upper waters of the Trois Pistoles River, 
is tortuous, narrow, and deep, arched by inter- 
locking branches, and kissed by dangling bushes. 
The current flows swiftly, eddying around the rich 
alluvial banks unbroken by a single rapid. Eagle 
Lake, eight miles above the Touladi forks, is 
shallow, with low, flat shores, where rushes and 
water-lilies grow profusely, and extend far out 
into the water. A point on the southern shore, 
opposite the inlet, was a favorite camping-place 
with the Indians, when accustomed to pass by this 
route to the St. Lawrence. Lac des Islets, a 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 45 

shallow water, named from the number of small 
islands formed by bowlders and angular blocks of 
hard sandstone, may be reached by two portages 
from the St. Lawrence side of the watershed. The 
outlet, called " Riviere St. Jean," is small, and for 
some distance below the lake very tortuous, and 
overhung by alders and leaning bushes. Then 
the stream spreads, becoming shallow. Numerous 
" drift jams " occur ; and a mile and a half from 
Lac des Aigles there is a fall of about six feet, 
with rough rapids above, extending half a mile. 
The water flows peaceably between the fall and 
lake. 

Touladi River proper is sluggish and very deep 
for eight miles below the forks, and then it expands 
to form the Second and First Touladi lakes, both 
shallow and uninteresting. Rapids begin below 
the first lake, and culminate in the Touladi Fall, 
a rough descent over transverse ledges, where 
the unwary canoeist sometimes finds himself in 
gurgite vasto, together with his camp supplies. 
Such was the experience of two Fredericton college 
students a few years ago. The great pool below 
the fall, and the water-worn depressions in the 
ledges above, are excellent places for trout-fishing 
in July, and the angler may capture a five-pound 
fish there, if the fates are propitious. Later in 
the season the big trout repair to the Madawaska 
River, where the sluggish current and soft grassy 
bottom afford an exceptionally good spawning 



46 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

ground. The Touladi River finally discharges 
into Temiscouata Lake, after draining five hundred 
and sixty square miles, and it is the largest river 
in the St. John system having no settlement above 
its outlet. 

Temiscouata (winding water) is the deepest 
lake in any way connected with the St. John, and 
fully nine times as deep as Grand Lake on the 
Jemseg, its only rival in superficial area. It is 
twenty-eight miles long by two in average width. 
The bottom is almost level at a mean depth of 
about two hundred feet, throughout the lower and 
central portions, the water deepening very quickly 
on leaving the shore. The northern arm is shal- 
lower. It is a noticeable fact that Temiscouata 
Lake, as well as the Madawaska and Ashberish 
rivers, lie in an almost direct line with the famous 
Saguenay gorge, but fifty miles distant. 

Trout and touladi of all sizes abound in Temis- 
couata, and are commonly captured with trolling 
hooks. The mouth of Mill Brook, four miles from 
Detour du Lac, is probably the best place for fly- 
fishing. 

Numerous settlements skirt the western side; 
on the east we find a few isolated houses uncon- 
nected with any road. Notre Dame de Detour 
du Lac, a French village charmingly situated on 
the hill slope midway down the lake, is, like Ed- 
mundston, a rendezvous for sportsmen. The 
Temiscouata Railway f oUows the shore for fifteen 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 47 

miles, disfiguring the otherwise beautiful scenery 
with myriads of embankments and rock-cuttings. 
The " Chemin Temiscouata," an old military road, 
by which the distance to Riviere du Loup is forty 
miles, strikes away from the lake above Cabineau, 
and near Fort Ingalls, a collection of very ruinous 
barracks and guard-houses. Immediately oppo- 
site. Big Mountain uprears its shaggy wooded 
crest, and tradition says that soldiers of the garri- 
son sometimes swam across the intervening water 
to alleviate the ennui of frontier life. 

Cabineau River is forty-one miles long from 
the southern end of Cabineau Lake, and drains an 
area of one hundred and ten square miles. The 
lake, which occupies the depression between 
Meruimpticook and St. Francis, a famous region 
for caribou-hunting, is thirteen miles long, with a 
width of one mile and less, very irregular in 
shape, and dotted with islands. No other lake in 
the vicinity has water so pure and transparent, 
though we have here a group of clear waters, in- 
cluding the Baker Brook and Blue River. Cabi- 
neau River flows through a marshy swale for six 
miles below the lake, where innumerable sharply 
pointed cedar sprigs extend over the water, and it 
is easily navigable for canoes, excepting a fall 
about twenty feet high, six miles from Temiscouata. 
Above the fall there are extensive dead waters, 
where, five years ago, six or seven natural drift- 
wood dams had formed. The lumbermen cleared 



48 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

these dams away, together with numerous beaver 
works. The Cabineau trout are small, but the 
valley affords an excellent hunting ground for 
deer and caribou. 

The fallow deer, common as they are to-day, 
were never seen in New Brunswick before the 
year 1818, at which date also wolves first ap- 
peared. As the deer rapidly increased in num- 
bers the wolves thrived admirably, never hesitat- 
ing to devour some domestic animal when weary 
of a venison diet. While visiting Eel River Lake 
in 1842, Dr. Gesner observed the remains of 
three deer and a caribou that had been dragged 
upon the ice and devoured, a pack of eleven 
wolves crossing the lake during his visit. " The 
bowlings of these anmials around my camp at 
night," he says, " were truly terrific." When in 
subsequent years the number of deer diminished, 
the wolves gradually disappeared as well, finally 
becoming extinct; and, now that the deer are 
rapidly increasing once more, an occasional wolf- 
howl again breaks the sylvan quietude. It is a 
most remarkable synchronism, best accounted for 
on the hypothesis that the wolves north of the 
St. Lawrence, when famished, cross the ice for 
plunder. 

The Ashberish River, by which the Indians 
formerly crossed from Madawaska to the Trois 
Pistoles, enters the northern end of Temiscouata. 
It has a picturesque fall six miles above the 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 49 

mouth, and from there clown is very tortuous and 
deep, although quite rapid in places. 

The Madawaska Eiver proper, twenty -two 
miles long when measured from Temiscouata 
Lake to Edmundston, has ahnost everywhere an 
even width and depth, a peaceful current, and a 
grassy bottom. Its valley is thickly settled, the 
natives spearing the large trout by the barreKul 
when they descend the river to spa^vn in August. 
For two miles below the lake, people say the Mad- 
awaska never freezes in the coldest weather, the 
village at Pole River being named Degele after 
this circumstance. Such a condition might be 
caused by the deeper Temiscouata waters circu- 
lating upwards by the suction of the river, and 
then taking some time to cool after exposure to 
the air. The old Canada line crosses the val- 
ley twelve miles from Edmundston, and here the 
Bossers live, mighty polers, and foremost among 
Squatook guides. Trout River is a considerable 
stream of clear water, entering from the west. 
Near the mouth the customary placidity of the 
Madawaska is broken by a few rapids, the Little 
Falls, from which the town of Edmundston de- 
rived its ancient name, being much the roughest. 
A dam has been constructed above with materials 
ruthlessly torn from an old stone fort on the hill- 
side. Canoes descend the Little Falls occasion- 
ally, although the " shoot " is rather too lively for 
most people who travel this way. 



50 THE ST. JOHN EIVEB. 

FROM EDMUNDSTON TO GRAND FALLS. 

Below Edmundston tlie physical features of the 
St. John change perceptibly. Although for five 
miles, or down to St. Basil, the river incloses 
islands, and spreads on bars, the channel soon con- 
tracts, becoming deeper and more sluggish. The 
glacial action which created the Grand Falls has 
in fact stemmed the water for twelve miles, or as 
far as Yanburen Village, on the American bank, 
the depth varying from fifteen to thirty feet, a 
greater average than is found elsewhere above 
Fredericton. Green and Quisibis rivers work out 
through extensive clay beds, in which fossil trees 
have been found. The valley, generally speaking, 
is fertile. The merry Frenchman seldom over- 
works to earn his daily pork and vegetables, yet 
the soft notes of his violin, wafted by an evening 
breeze, and the distant tread of dancers, are sooth- 
ing to the weary canoeman, if not conducive to the 
material prosperity of Madawaska County. 

Some of these festivities (among the lower 
classes) are extremely hilarious, lasting uninter- 
ruptedly for two nights and a day. The male 
French often dance with clay pipes in their 
mouths, and both arms around the female. It is 
usually considered bad taste for any one dancer to 
monopolize the floor, and the offender is occasion- 
ally ejected from the ball-room, his exit accelera- 
ted by a vigorous application of pedal extremities 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 51 

on the part of jealous ones unable to dance as 
well. This is termed " socking the boots." 

Little River, a stream with many branches, 
enters the St. John at the very brink of Grand 
Falls, pouring at low water into a funnel-shaped 
hole or passageway, and spouting forth into the 
principal fall half way down the cliff. 

THE OKOQUOIS RIVER. 

Two miles below Edmundston the little Oroquois 
River unites with the St. John, a stream flowing 
parallel with the Madawaska, and never far dis- 
tant therefrom. It is easy to navigate as far as 
the fall, fifteen miles from the mouth, and prob- 
ably above the fall for some distance. On it we 
find much deadwater, very pure and transparent, 
however, and swarming with small trout. Large 
fish are seldom or never caught there. The fall is 
about twelve feet high, and operates a mill, which 
is connected by road with the Madawaska River. 

GREEN RIVER. 

No tributary of the St. John rivals Green River 
in general attractiveness, unless perhaps the To- 
bique. The popular impression that it is one long, 
tumultuous rapid from source to mouth is untrue ; 
for in one place at least, above the old Albert 
farm, the current runs most innocently for more 
than a mile. Considered as a whole, Green River 
is undoubtedly more rapid than any other tribu- 



52 THE ST. JOHN BIVER. • 

tary, and one poler a barely sufficient motive- 
power for a canoe, unless the day's journey be 
made short. Some of the rapids are straight, 
others are on bends of the stream called " round 
turns." The most expeditious way of ascending 
is by fastening two canoes side by side, but some- 
what apart, with poles, and procuring a strong, 
sure-footed horse to drag by a tow-line. 

Although the drainage area is less than five 
hundred square miles, and the length but seventy- 
five miles, a sufficiency of water for canoeing may 
be found at all times, partly because the channel 
is narrow, and partly because the valley contains 
an astonishing number of rivulets that never dry 
up in summer. 

About twenty miles from the source the fourth 
branch, or Pimouet, enters from the east, — a 
stream connected by a difficult portage of seven 
miles with the Quatawamkedgwick, the principal 
water of the Restigouche. 

In the twenty miles between the fourth and 
second branches Green Eiver is swift and shal- 
low, with occasional good pools above ledges, in 
which the trout are exceptionally lively, and very 
beautiful in shape and markings. Here is the 
best fishing, and huge trout may be seen swim- 
ming in and out among the sunken roots far 
down in the transparent water. Green River ex- 
cels all other St. John waters for trout, although 
the mammoth " five-pounder " is not as common as 



J 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 53 

in the few great lakes, like Temiscouata ; and it 
is the only tributary leased by tlie Provincial gov- 
ernment for trout-fisliing alone. At the Black 
Fall, one mile above the second fork, where the 
water tumbles down a natural sluiceway, necessi- 
tating a carry, a short portage leads to the first 
Green River lake. 

There are, all told, six lakes upon the sec- 
ond fork, or Lake Branch, which drains a valley 
parallel with the upper Squatook. The first is 
nearly surrounded by hills, long, narrow, and 
shallow, and the water has a fall of eight feet a 
little below its outlet. Between the first and 
second lakes the stream flows principally through 
a spruce and cedar swamp, and is without bad 
rapids, if we except a small fall three quarters 
of the way up. Second or Mud Lake, which 
is nearly a mile and a half long, is bounded 
westerly by a lofty ridge, while on the east the 
water is shallow, muddy, and swampy. The 
third and fourth lakes are larger and deeper, 
and surrounded by rising ground. The fifth 
and sixth lakes, five miles beyond, lie close to- 
gether ; the former being very shallow, with a 
soft bottom of white mud, which the men call 
" paint," from its quality of sticking to the canoe 
poles, like white lead. High hills are seen to 
the northwestward, from the tops of which the 
guides say they can overlook Squatook Lake. 
Below the third lake there are three small water- 
falls, each three or four feet high. 



54 THE ST. JOHN RIVEB. 

The first fork, or east branch of Grreen River, 
which has one large fall, so the guides say, 
enters about twenty-five miles from the mouth, 
and no settlements are found above it, either on 
main stream or tributary. For that matter, a 
forest almost primeval extends northward to the 
St. Lawrence valley, and eastward to the lower 
Restigouche, affording ample facilities for the 
enjoyment of Nature in her most unadulterated 
form. 

The Albert farm, easily attained by a portage 
of nine miles from St. Basil village on the St. 
John, is situated in one of the most picturesque of 
valleys, but the Albert family, unfortunately, once 
the most experienced Green River guides, are sit- 
uated in the Western States. Within the thirteen 
miles below the farm the valley is well settled, 
and excellent views of Green River Mountain, an 
obtuse peak, beautifully forest-clad, may be ob- 
tained from the water. We find heavy water- 
falls five miles above the farm, and one and one 
half miles from the St. John River, where small 
milling operations are carried on. 

Along the middle portion of Green River high 
hills inclose the valley, and, by lifting their ver- 
dant tree-clad slopes abruptly from the water, 
afford most attractive scenery. Natives and 
travelers familiar with the stream assert that the 
-Slater is colored by a natural green pigment ; but 
the writer strongly suspects that the green pig- 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 55 

ment of Green River, the blue pigment of Blue 
River, and the no pigment at all of the Tobique 
are varieties of the same thing, namely a lively 
imagination aroused by certain delusive optical 
phenomena. That the water is deliciously clear 
and cool everybody must agree. 

QUISIBIS RIVER. 

The Quisibis River rises in two streams, which 
unite thirteen miles from the St. John, and have 
their sources near the valley of the junction 
stream, a tributary of Green River's eastern 
branch ; drains one hundred and twenty square 
miles ; and may be canoed with ease below the 
forks, where it is largely deadwater. Its upper 
valley is said to be the coldest place in the coun- 
try ; but if it is so, the reason is decidedly obscure. 
The branches are practically " uncanoeable," and 
each has a fall, so the natives say. 

GRAND RIVER. 

Grand River, a swift and shallow stream, but 
one easily navigable by canoe to the Waagan 
Brook, eighteen miles from the mouth, enters the 
St. John from the east, thirteen miles above Grand 
Falls, and drains about one hundred and thirty 
square miles. A light birch might be poled much 
beyond the Waagan, should a sufficient reason 
for so doing be found. The water is compara- 
tively impure, the fishing bad, and the stream 



56 THE ST. JOHN BIVEE. 

unimportant, except for the fact that the Waagan 
and Waagansis Brooks, often called the Resti- 
gouche and Grand River Waagans, afford a ready 
means of reaching the upper waters of the Resti- 
gouche. The " carry " over this watershed, and 
the " carries " between the Umbazookscus and 
Mud Pond on the Allagash, and between the 
Nictaux and Nepisiguit lakes, are the three most 
famous modern portages connecting with the St. 
John or its tributaries. 

THE GEAND FALLS. 

Every traveler should visit the Grand Falls. 
As the water in its mad career, although ever 
the same in a general way, momentarily changes 
as regards the minor movements, and as the chief 
beauty of the scene depends upon that constant 
change, no photograph can represent nor pen de- 
scribe it. The main fall is almost perpendicular, 
and wider at the top than at the base. The prin- 
cipal part of the river flows in a black and oily- 
looking mass through a depression near the centre, 
and immediately beneath a huge fragment ap- 
pears, called the Split Rock, upon which the wa- 
ters thunder unceasingly, and rebound with more 
than doubled fury. A column of spray ever rises 
from this part of the fall, completely obscuring the 
Split Rock at moderately high water ; and when 
the sun's rays fall upon it, a gorgeous rainbow 
floats in mid-air, waving its many colors over the 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN. 5T 

sombre rocks and foaming eddies Distinct lunar 
rainbows are often seen. It is not so much the 
splendor, the speed and energy of the Grand Falls 
that impress one, as it is the incessancy of the 
display. For how many ages, we wonder, prior to 
man's advent on earth, did this vast torrent of 
tumultuous water thunder down the cliff ? 

On the right-hand side the stream comes over 
the brink in a curtain, which, at average water, 
is about a foot in thickness ; and on the extreme 
right it falls into a crevice at the base of a jutting 
crag, the latter facing the fall. The water is col- 
lected in this crevice and thrown sideways, other 
waters falling on top ; and when a lot of spruce 
logs, passing down the side pitch, runs foul of an- 
other lot coming straight over, the spectacle is 
inspiring. 

On the left a man may climb down to the 
water's edge, and there obtain, if not too badly 
spray-drenched, a splendid view of the Split Kock. 
In seasons of extreme drought the river is said to 
contract until the flow is almost entirely within 
the depression above this rock, already referred to. 

A winding gorge about one mile long, the sides 
of which are generally perpendicular, and from 
eighty to one hundred and fifty feet in height, has 
been formed by the erosive action and recession 
of the fall. The rocks are calcareous slates of 
the Upper Silurian age, with strata so curiously 
twisted and irregularly worn that one may climb 



68 THE ST. JOHN RIVEE. 

everywhere with a firm, safe foothold. Immedi- 
ately below the fall the gorge is quite wide, that 
is, as wide as the fall, but it narrows gradually to 
a point where a suspension bridge crosses, then 
widens again, and finally becomes narrower than 
ever at the lower end, and continues all the while 
to deepen as the distance from the fall increases. 
In several places steep ravines afford access to the 
bottom, where there are rapids of such a wild 
order that any attempt at navigation would prove 
fatal, and opposite Pulpit Rock a stairway has 
been constructed. The cliffs are everywhere 
crowned by a thick growth of young spruce-trees. 
Pulpit Rock is a colossal mass overhanging the 
abyss, where the St. John is narrower than it is 
anywhere else between the confluence of the Baker 
and Southwest branches and the Bay of Fundy. 
The exact width cannot easily be measured, for 
the rapid below is the wildest in the gorge. The 
whole river seems to throw itself in one seething 
and spouting mass over some hidden obstruction, 
which is probably a many-ton mass of rock that 
has fallen away from the cliff, thereby creating 
Pulpit Rock as we now see it. A rocky prom- 
ontory, perforated with water-worn wells, extends 
from the stairway to the rapid. "The Great 
Well " is about thirty feet deep, with a diameter 
of sixteen feet at the top, widening at the bottom. 
Many others are scattered over the rocks, some 
large, some small, and nearly all on this promon- 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN, 59 

tory. As it is only during very high floods that 
the water covers them, they must have been formed 
in the post-glacial epoch, when the gorge was in 
process of erosion. 

Some distance below the wells, on the same side 
of the stream, a great cliff overhangs, so that when 
standing on the brow the water is hardly discern- 
ible at the base. Here the stream is nearly as 
narrow as it is beneath the Pulpit, and perfectly 
still imder ordinary conditions, although dark and 
threatening in appearance. Above the clifE we 
find the " Coffee MiU," a whirlpool deriving its 
name from an extravagant propensity to spin logs 
around until they are ground to a point at each 
end, and generally rendered unfit for any indus- 
trial purpose. 

When the annual flood is at the maximum level, 
the falls present an appearance exceedingly grand 
and impressive. Standing at the water's edge in 
the summer season, one sees the flood lines thirty 
or forty feet above, and clearly marked by the ab- 
sence of all vegetation below their level. During 
the famous freshet of May, 1887, the main fall was 
said to be for some days simply an enormous 
rapid, while at the outlet of the gorge, ordinarily 
quiet, the pent-up waters burst forth with the 
wildest fury. Once some heavy logs became fas- 
tened on the Split Rock ; and so many others fol- 
lowed before the first were dislodged, that finally 
both the fall and the pool below were covered, so 



60 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

that men could walk anywhere over the dam with 
safety. After all human efforts to loosen the mass 
had failed, this vast accumulation of valuable tim- 
ber was dislodged by a sudden rise in the water. 
At the Aroostook Fall, hereinafter described, a 
similar " jam " took place. It is no uncommon 
thing to see heavy logs, thirty or forty feet in 
length, tossed completely out of water in the 
rapids of the gorge, while others are sucked into 
whirl jDools formed above projecting ledges, and 
spun round for many days without remission. 

The St. John River is almost equally divided 
by the Grand Falls, they being two hundred and 
eighteen miles from the source of the Baker 
Branch and two hundred and twenty-two from 
the Bay of Fundy. Excepting Niagara, and a 
possible waterfall or two in the Labrador penin- 
sula, these falls of the St. John are the greatest to 
be found east of the Mississippi valley, and fully 
one third the total drainage area of the river is 
above them. A flock of geese is said to have come 
over with impunity ; and the story of eighty stal- 
wart Indian braves, led to their destruction by 
the squaw of a hostile tribe, forms a part of the 
legendary history of the place. The difference in 
level between the upper and lower basins is one 
hundred and seventeen feet. 



i 



THE UPPER ST. JOHN, 61 

COLEBROOKE. 

Colebrooke, or Grand Falls Village, which, has 
about one thousand inhabitants, was ambitiously 
laid out in wide, regular streets ; but as the growth 
stopped shortly afterwards, the streets became 
quite as much frequented by pigs as by animals 
of the human kind. In the vicinity of the gorge 
great patches of turf have been uprooted by the 
snouts of those uncomely quadrupeds. A portage 
road, less than a mile long, leads around the gorge 
and fall, and descends very precij)itously into the 
lower basin, where a perfectly level tract of 
grassy land borders the river on the west, over- 
flowed by many springs of icy water that ooze 
from the base of the cliffs. Mosquitoes are found 
here as late as September (a gaunt and haggard 
brood, and venomous), while the neighboring 
country is said to yield two strawberry crops in 
one year. What magical influence over nature 
does the big cataract possess ? 



CHAPTEE III. 

THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 
FEOM GRAND FALLS TO ANDOVER. 

At the basin below Grand Falls the river 
pauses, as if for needed rest, and then races away 
to Andover, twenty-four miles off, at an average 
speed of six miles an hour. Here and there some 
ledges cross the channel, or loose rocks obstruct 
the current, forming the White Kapid, Rapide de 
Femme, and Black Rapid, within the first four 
miles from Colebrooke ; Frayall's Rapid, near 
Little River ; and the Tobique Rips, opposite In- 
dian Point. These rapids are not dangerous, and 
the uniform rapidity of the current makes them less 
noticeable than would otherwise be the case. The 
valley is narrow and deep, with many well-formed 
terraces rising one above another, and marking 
former water-levels of geological antiquity. An 
excellent field is presented for the study of gla- 
cial and post-glacial phenomena, and of surface 
geology, as in addition to the numerous terraces 
may be seen the drift-filled pre-glacial channels 
of the St. John around the Grand Falls, of the 
Aroostook around the Aroostook Fall, and of the 
Tobique around The Narrows. 



THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 63 

Between Grand Falls and Aroostook the coun- 
try is more rugged, and the inhabitants fewer in 
number than elsewhere between St. Francis and 
the sea, while the railway generally follows the 
level table-lands on the natural terraces. On the 
Rapide de Femme Brook, two and a half miles 
from Colebrooke station, the government main- 
tains a salmon-hatchery, above which the water 
falls fifty feet in a series of minute cascades. 

Little Biver, which enters the St. John three 
miles above Aroostook, is in itself of no impor- 
tance, but it reminds one of the blundering bad 
taste of the early colonists in calling a dozen or 
more streams in western New Brunswick by that 
commonplace name, while so many euphonious 
Indian words were negligently abandoned and 
lost. 

SALMON RIVER. 

Salmon River rises near the source of Grand 
River, runs a course of forty miles, drains some- 
thing over two hundred square miles, and dis- 
embogues into the St. John six miles below the 
Grand Falls. Through a deep valley, encom- 
passed by lofty hills clad in a dense spruce forest, 
the tributary stream rushes forth with a speed 
rarely found in such a small body of water. 
Crossing a rich intervale where stately elms are 
grouped with other trees in the regularity of an 
artificial park, the water of the Salmon River — 
and very pure, transparent water, too — dances 



64 THE ST. JOHN BIVEE. 

and sparkles, and seems momentarily to increase 
in speed ; while sucli is tlie force of the stream 
that, in the course of time, masses of pebbles and 
sand have been pushed out, crowding the main 
St. John into a comparatively narrow and very 
rapid channel. One of the ablest canoe-polers of 
the Madawaska valley said that he had never un- 
dertaken a more difficult task than that of push- 
ing a birch up the first five miles of this mad 
stream. " Worse than Green River ! '' he re- 
marked, wiping the perspiration from his brow. 
Salmon River may be ascended for thirty miles 
or more, but nothing will be gained by so doing, 
unless the explorer desires to penetrate the wil- 
derness in a new direction. The water is less 
rapid above Foley Brook. 

Salmon never resort to this river now, as once 
they did, and the trout-fishing is poor. 

THE AROOSTOOK RIVER. 

Six miles above Andover the Aroostook sweeps 
into the St. John by a graceful bend around the 
base of a lofty ridge, which terminates in a knife- 
like point at the very confluence of the two wa- 
ters ; and, in length one hundred and thirty-eight 
miles when measured from the source of the 
Munsungan, and drainage area two thousand one 
hundred and sixty square miles, it is certainly the 
largest tributary. Probably the average volume 
of discharge is also the greatest, but on no other 



THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 65 

large branch of the St. John does the water fall 
so low in dry weather. Even Green River, with 
an area less than one fourth as great, is generally- 
navigable when it would be almost impossible to 
work a canoe over the partially dry bed of the 
Aroostook. The causes are, probably, the paucity 
of large lakes which retain the flood water, the 
extensive denudation of forest, and the widening 
of the channel by heavy lumber driven from the 
upper waters. Once the valley was famous for 
white pine, but the larger trees have been pretty 
well culled out in recent years. So rich and well- 
irrigated is the soil that the region has been called 
" The Garden of Maine." 

The Munsungan stream, undoubtedly the prin- 
cipal branch of the Aroostook, rises near the 
sources of the Musquacook River and Spider 
Brook, tributaries of the AUagash, and, by uniting 
with the Milnikak, Millnokett, or south branch, 
forms the Aroostook proper. Both the Munsun- 
gan and Millnokett have lakes and deadwaters. 
Thirteen miles of stream connect Big Munsungan 
Lake with the Millnokett, and one fall occurs, 
necessitating a portage for canoes. Above the 
lake are deadwaters, fed by small brooks, many 
of which flow from very picturesque little ponds 
among the mountains. 

The Millnokett stream may be reached by por- 
taging from the East Branch of the Penobscot to 
a small pond above Big Millnokett Lake. Below 



66 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

the lake tlie cliaiinel widens into another pond, 
followed by a few miles of rough water, and the 
lower course is also somewhat obstructed by rap- 
ids. Deadwaters are found above and below the 
mouth of the principal tributary, the Milmigas- 
set, a rough brook flowing from Milmigasset Lake, 
one of the prettiest little bodies of water in the 
Aroostook valley. 

The Mooseluc Eiver runs about thirty miles, 
drains nearly one hundred and fifty square miles, 
and enters the Aroostook from the north, ten 
miles below Millnokett. Its various sources inter- 
lock with the Munsungan, Musquacook, and Big 
Machias rivers ; and the country comprising the 
valleys of these streams is one of the best, possi- 
bly the very best, of moose grounds in the St. 
John Kiver basin, and a locality equally as good 
for deer and caribou. The traveler must be con- 
tent with the hunt, however, as the fishing is very 
inferior. Chandler Brook joins the Mooseluc a 
few miles above the mouth, and drains a fair- 
sized lake. 

A little above Umcoleus stream, and ninety-five 
miles by water from the St. John, begins that 
pioneer settlement called the Ox-bow Plantation ; 
then the Aroostook ceases to be a wilderness 
river. The banks are generally under cultiva- 
tion, although wooded in places ; and the water 
glides noiselessly along, unbroken by a single 
rapid that the ordinary canoeist would call a bad 



THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 67 

one. The scenery is attractive, although strictly 
rural. The Umcoleus stream, which takes its 
name, as the Indians say, from a species of wild 
duck, may be ascended by canoe, if the poler's 
arm be stronger than the rapids ; and at its head 
are deadwaters connected by a portage with a 
tributary of the East Branch of the Penobscot. 
The La Pampeag River, which is said to have 
been in early times the principal avenue to the 
Aroostook from the Penobscot country, flows be- 
tween low banks incumbered with alders and 
leaning bushes. 

The Masardis, or St. Croix Eiver, probably the 
largest tributary, but one uninteresting to sports- 
men, as flowing through a partially inhabited 
coimtry, enters from the south, twelve miles above 
Ashland, and drains two hundred and sixty 
square miles. Big Machias River, on the con- 
trary, another tributary draining over two hun- 
dred square miles of forest and desolate, barren 
land between the valleys of the Mooseluc and 
Fish rivers, affords an excellent hunting ground 
for moose and other large game. 

Pending the settlement of the boundary ques- 
tion between the United States and Great Britain, 
the Aroostook valley became the prey of lawless 
trespassers, who removed large quantities of the 
most valuable timber. The legislature of Maine, 
in secret session, passed a resolve for the protec- 
tion of the public lands, and authorized Sheriff 



68 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

Strickland to muster a company of volunteers for 
the sujDpression of this illegal traffic. On the 
fifth day of February, 1839, two hundred men 
were marching through the wilderness, under the 
leadership of Captain Stover Rines, and on the 
eighth of that month they reached Masardis 
stream, fell unexpectedly upon the trespassers, 
who offered but slight resistance, and captured 
their teams and implements. Flushed with suc- 
cess the company then advanced to the Little 
Madawaska, where they met with a reverse, and 
Captain Rines was made a prisoner, and carried 
off to Fredericton. These events precipitated the 
so-called "Aroostook War," a general call to 
arms throughout the Provinces and Maine, for- 
tunately unattended with loss of life, and leading 
to some curious international complications and 
Lord Ashburton's treaty. 

Ashland village, forty-five miles by road from 
the St. John River, is prettily situated on a hill- 
top overlooking the great green forest of the 
Machias valley. It is the terminus of a lumber- 
men's road that extends ahnost straight across 
northern Maine to the Quebec settlements, cross- 
ing the Musquacook and AUagash rivers, and 
connecting Seven Islands with St. Pamphile. 
Few but Indians can trace it now, so overgrown 
has it become in many places with young trees 
and dwarfish shrubbery. 

Midway between Masardis and Machias the 



THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 69 

Aroostook receives the Squapan, a " canoeable " 
stream, issuing from a lake nine miles in length, 
the largest in the Aroostook valley. 

From Asliland to Presque Isle the river is shal- 
low and very broad, — in places as broad as the 
main St. John above Edmundston. The town of 
Presque Isle, a miniature metropolis of four thou- 
sand people, built across the Presque Isle stream, 
one mile above its confluence with the Aroostook, 
has sprung mushroom-like, in a few years, from- 
two houses and a mill ; while the villages of Cari- 
bou and Fort Fairfield, the former fourteen, the 
latter twenty-six miles below Presque Isle, have 
also had a raj)id, prosperous growth. Presque Isle 
stream resembles the Masardis ; and as the upper 
waters interlock with those of another Presque 
Isle, a tributary of the St. John, the two streams 
are called respectively the Aroostook and St. John 
Presque Isles by way of distinction. Although 
but sixteen miles from Presque Isle town to the 
St. John, the distance is thirty-three miles by the 
river, which makes a very sharp northward bend. 
Below Caribou the Little Madawaska enters the 
Aroostook from the north, a large stream drain- 
two hundred and thirty square miles south of the 
east branch of Fish River, and said to be sluggish, 
flowing through swampy forests of spruce and fir. 

Four miles from the mouth, the noble Aroos- 
took sadly impairs its reputation as a stream of 
uninterrupted tranquillity. The water divides at 



70 THE ST. JOHN EIVEB. 

first into little rapid cliannels, whicli gradually 
contract and unite; tlie slope of the river bed 
and tlie force of the current ever increasing, 
until the river finally enters a gorge, and tumbles 
about in it with a wanton fury only exceeded by 
that of the St. John at the Grand Falls. The 
walls of the gorge are low at first, but rise to an 
elevation of sixty or seventy feet at the lower 
end. Within are five principal cascades aggre- 
gating seventy-five feet in height; the largest a 
fall of sixteen feet, at the foot of the gorge, 
where a remarkable dike of diorite overhangs 
the water. Immediately below the dike is the 
Split Eock, on which lumber once piled, as at the 
Grand Falls, until the gorge became completely 
choked. Nicely formed wells appear at the 
Aroostook Falls, worn out by the grinding action 
of rounded stones, and one especially is very 
large, the water within pulsating in correspond- 
ence with the ebb and flow of the fall outside, 
by reason of some curious subterranean connec- 
tion. Dense evergreen woods surround the gorge, 
and the scene is picturesque in the extreme. 

The valley of the Aroostook, in the three miles 
intervening between the fall and mouth, is very 
deep, and in several places the water falls over 
ledges and bowlders, forming rough rapids. 
Whatson's and Herd's rapids are the most dan- 
gerous to navigate, and are already responsible 
for one or two canoe wrecks and some loss of 



THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 71 

life. In 1842 a canoe containing Dr. Gesner and 
his Indians was carried over Wliatson's Kapid 
and swamped, much to the doctor's vexation, as 
he had intended to confine his geological re- 
searches to such ledges as appeared above water. 
The Augeanquapsporhegan, or Limestone River, 
enters from the north near Herd's Rapid by 
successive cascades called " The Four Falls," hav- 
ing a total descent of eighty feet. 

Although the Aroostook waters are not well 
stocked with fish, the Tobique Indians succeed in 
spearing a good many salmon at the deep black 
pool below the fall. Some idea of that fish's 
strength and activity may be conveyed by merely 
stating that a few small salmon succeed in as- 
cending the gorge. Of late years grilse have 
been taken with the fly at the mouth of the Little 
Machias River. 

THE TOBIQUE RIVER. 

Not often does a river like the St. John, consid- 
erably exceeding four hundred miles in length, re- 
ceive its two principal tributaries within a distance 
of four miles ; yet just so far below Aroostook the 
famous Tobique River pours its pure, translucent 
waters into the greater stream. The Tobique meas- 
ures about one hundred and ten miles to the source 
of the so-called Right Hand Branch, and drains 
fifteen hundred and sixty square miles. A gentle- 
man visiting the river in 1863 says : " The mouth 



72 THE ST. JOHN RIVEE. 

of tlie Tobique is exceedingly insignificant, and en- 
tirely unsuggestive of -the beautiful scenery whicb 
characterizes the river in every other part. This 
unprepossessing appearance is caused by the land 
being here quite low, and the channel obstructed by 
evergreen intervale islands. One would scarcely 
suppose that there was any river here at all, much 
less one of the largest tributaries of the river St. 
John." To-day the water rushes forth in one 
rapidly moving mass, which presents an imposing 
appearance, even when viewed from the Andover 
bank. Can lumber, swift water, and ice, in so 
short a period, have completely eroded these " ever- 
green intervale inlands," and scattered them, in the 
form of silt, along miles of the river below ? 

The Tobique and St. John waters do not thor- 
oughly intermingle where they meet, but even at 
Andover, two miles down, the former stream's 
proximity is indicated by the transparency of the 
river near the eastern bank. Below Green Eiver 
the line of demarcation is equally distinct. 

On " The Point," above the Tobique outlet, we 
find a village peopled exclusively by Maliseet In- 
dians, the aboriginal proprietors of both the To- 
bique and St. John. There are three principal 
Maliseet villages, — one at St. Mary's, opposite 
Fredericton; one on the west bank of the St. 
John, twelve miles above Fredericton, and the one 
under consideration. A family of the Penobscot 
tribe has settled at St. Pamphile, near Big Black 



THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 73 

!River, and a few scattered Maliseet families live 
at Edmundston and other points. Here, as else- 
where, these dusky aborigines are incapable of 
thorough civilization, but peaceful and inoffensive 
nevertheless. Some of them farm in a small way ; 
all have ceased to live in wigwams. The men 
build canoes, hunt, and act as guides. The squaws 
make baskets and like articles of commerce, and 
indeed do all the less interesting work, as no dis- 
turbing modern theories of woman's rights have 
entered the cerebral cavity of the brawny Maliseet. 
In every village the Indians maintain a brood of 
ugly, vicious dogs ; but dogs not under their im- 
mediate control they greatly fear. The birch-bark 
canoe is used invariably, while the French and 
English settlers along the Upper St. John prefer 
the pirogue, a clumsy-looking craft, shaped, like 
that of the ancient Britons, from a single log. In 
still water the birch outstrips the pirogue, espe- 
cially in running with the wind, but in poling rap- 
ids the pirogue keeps the better headway. The 
Indians experience some difficulty at present in 
procuring suitable bark for canoe-building. The 
white or canoe birch is said to attain a diameter 
of six or seven feet in some parts of the northern 
woods, but so widespread has been its destruction 
that the Indian is compelled to seek it in regions 
growing ever more remote. Where once canoes 
were covered with a single sheet of bark, they now 
too often exhibit unbecoming seams and patches, 



74 THE ST. JOHN EIVEB. 

wMch, opening from atmosplieric change or con- 
tact with stones and snags, necessitate a frequent 
use of the rosin-pot. 

Two lakes resting on the common watershed 
between the St. John and Miramichi rivers, and 
called respectively " Long " and " Trousers," form 
the principal sources of the Tobique. Trousers 
Lake, which is five miles long, has been named 
from the similarity in form to a well-known ar- 
ticle of male attire. Had nature placed it on 
the broad Aroostook they would have called it 
" Pants." The shores are low and thickly wooded 
to the water's edge with black spruce, which im- 
parts a weird and gloomy asj)ect. Long Lake, 
seven miles in length, is much more beautiful, 
with higher shores. Large bowlders, deeply 
overgrown with moss, cover the surface of the 
country in this vicinity. Both lakes send forth 
goodly streams, which, by uniting, create the 
"Eight Hand Branch," or principal water, of 
the Tobique. Geographically speaking, it is the 
"left hand branch," but popular names, when 
generally accepted, admit of no correction. From 
Long Lake a portage of seven miles leads to the 
upper waters of the Little Southwest Miramichi 
Eiver ; a very difficult portage to cross, but one 
that affords the traveler what is possibly the 
longest and most attractive journey through an 
imbroken wilderness to be found east of the St. 
Lawrence. Britt Brook, a tributary of the Long 



THE MIDDLE RIVER. 75 

Lake stream, flows from a little lake on the same 
watershed with the others. 

The Right Hand Branch has a rough fall, three 
or four feet high, six miles above its junction with 
the Left Hand Branch, Little Tobique, or Kic- 
taux ; and elsewhere is rapid and ledgy, with high 
banks, gradually rising below the mouth of the 
Don River, or Long Lake stream. Above the Don 
the bowlders make the channel rough and difficult 
to navigate. 

The Serpentine River enters from the east, 
about twelve miles below the Don, and widens at 
one part to form Serpentine Lake, a very tortuous 
sheet of water, surrounded by hills which decline 
to form flat projecting headlands. The channel 
is incumbered by bowlders for six miles below the 
lake, and then we find a deadwater approached 
by lofty ridges which stretch away towards Cow 
Mountain, on the southeast. Nine miles below 
the deadwater the river cuts through a granite 
belt, forming rapids and falls, around which a 
portage of a quarter of a mile becomes necessary. 
Several large brooks enter, and most of them, 
including North Pole Brook, rise near the sources 
of the Little Southwest Branch of the Nepisiguit. 
The various lakes we have mentioned lie approx- 
imately parallel with each other, and are connected 
by a series of portages; that from Serpentine 
Lake to Britt Brook Lake being the longest. 

The word Nictaux means " Forks," and in no 



76 TRE ST. JOHN BIVEE. 

other part of the country do we find such a pecu- 
liar corrivation as the Nictaux or Forks of the 
Tobique. Almost at the confluence of the two 
principal streams, the Mamozekel Kiver enters the 
Right Hand Branch ; the Sisson stream, the 
Left. The same explorer who noted the islands 
near the mouth remarked : " The two branches 
form with the main stream a figure somewhat re- 
sembling an italic T." 

The Sisson Branch has a fall seven miles above 
the mouth, where a j)ortage of more than a mile 
must be made ; above the fall a tributary enters 
from the northeast, flowing from Sisson Lake, 
an excellent water for trout. A lessee of the 
Tobique, accustomed to hunt around the Nictaux 
with John Bernard and " Frank," two of the most 
experienced Indians at " The Point," says: "Up 
to the present time (March, 1893), no person, 
not even a lumberman or Indian, has ever visited 
the headwaters of the main Sisson stream." 
There can be little question about the accuracy 
of his information. 

The Nictaux, or Little Tobique, runs about thirty- 
five miles and drains, with the Sisson Branch, an 
area of three hundred and seventy square miles. 
The drainage area of the Right Hand Branch is 
slightly greater. All these streams spread out 
over the country so as to give a fan-shaped ap- 
pearance when viewed on the map, the main To- 
bique being the handle of the fan, the various 



THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 77 

branches the spokes. The many lakes, ponds, and 
barren lands around the outskirts of the watershed 
afford a hunting ground for moose and other large 
game, very little, if any, inferior to that surround- 
ing the upper Aroostook. 

Nictaux Lake, the most picturesque little wa- 
ter imaginable, and the head of the Left Hand 
Branch, nestles at the base of Bald Mountain, 
the highest peak in New Brunswick. The moun- 
tain, which is not, strictly speaking, bald, but 
clothed with a stunted vegetation, rises quite 
abruptly from the water's edge to a height of 2,240 
feet, or a little less than half a mile. The sides 
are strewn with large detached blocks of granite, 
and the slope has been ascertained, by actual 
measurement, to be no less than forty-five degrees. 
The view from the summit is so extensive that on 
a clear day with a good glass one may on the one 
hand see the cliffs of Gaspe to the northward, and 
on the other, in the far-off south, the still more 
lofty and snow-crowned peak of Katahdin. The 
whole country, as far as the eye can reach, is one 
unbroken wilderness, thrown into mountains and 
ridges of every variety of outline. A stream having 
a few feet of rapid descent divides Nictaux Lake 
into two parts, the upper part connecting with Nepi- 
siguit Lake by a portage two miles and a half long. 
By ascending the Tobique, crossing this portage, 
and descending the Nepisiguit Eiver, the traveler 
wiU enjoy a very surfeit of good hunting and fishing, 



78 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

rapid-shooting, beautiful scenery, and wild camp 
life. Tlie lower lake is two miles long by one 
broad, and completely inclosed by bills, except at 
the ends. A tiny island, bare of all vegetation, 
rises in the "very centre of the eastern end, im- 
mediately beneath Bald Mountain, affording the 
jaded traveler a complete refuge from those 
quintessences of wickedness on wings, the black 
flies. 

The Little Tobique is somewhat obstructed by 
rapids for a few miles below the lake, and then 
becomes narrow, deep, and swift, with many wind- 
ings. The Great and Little Cedar streams enter 
from the north, their upper waters being probably 
as little known as those of the Sisson Branch. 
Below " The Cedars " the stream becomes more 
tortuous than ever, the current slower, the banks 
thickly overgrown with tangled alders. Had the 
ancients been familiar with Northern New Bruns- 
wick they might have chosen the Nictaux or 
Cabineau, instead of the Meander, as an illustra- 
tion of thoroughly aimless crookedness. 

The main Tobique measures some sixty-three 
miles from the Nictaux to Indian Point, the only 
really rough waters occurring at the Narrows and 
Red Rapids, although the current is swift in most 
places. The valley is one of the most fertile and 
beautiful ones in the Province, and on no other 
tributary of the St. John, unless it is the Aroos- 
took, has the pristine forest so rapidly disappeared 



THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 79 

before the settler's axe. While in 1860 but a 
few scattered dwellings appeared, near the Red 
Rapids, the valley is now continuously, in many 
places thickly, settled from the Nictaux to the St. 
John. 

One of the most enchanting parts of the stream 
is the Blue Mountain Bend, where the water is 
smooth, deep, and transparently clear, and the 
three ragged summits of the Blue Mountains rise 
abruptly on the east. The soil is reddish below 
Two Brooks ; the land alluvial and rich. There 
are many islands, low and covered with luxuriant 
vegetation. Dr. Gesner estimates their number 
in the main Tobique to be no less than seventy, 
but it is liable to change from time to time 
through natural causes. 

The Gidquac enters the Tobique from the 
south, about twenty-five miles below the Nictaux, 
and Gulquac Lake, the source of the south and 
principal branch, is connected with Trousers Lake 
by a portage two miles and one half long. The 
stream is rather too rough for canoeing, as it 
winds around the bases of bold and rugged cliffs, 
but the upper waters of both branches lie well 
within the country of large game. In the summer 
of 1885 the industrious beaver so far forgot his 
constitutional dislike of civilization as to construct 
a dam across it, four miles from the settlements 
in the Tobique valley, a perfect model of infra- 
human architecture by which every drop of water 



80 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

was successfully turned into the adjoining woods, 
and the river bed left quite dry for many yards 
below. " Beaver like white man," remarked the 
delighted guide on first discovering it, " settles 
down and goes to work ; otter like Injun, here 
to-day, there to-morrow." 

The Au-kee-awe-waps-ke-he-gan, or " River with 
a wall at its mouth," is another principal contrib- 
utor of the Tobique, entering from the south, 
twenty -eight miles above Indian Point. Its 
name, which certainly deserves to have some 
meaning, has been successively shortened to 
" Wapskehegan" and " Wapsky," while the " wall 
at the mouth " consists of a cliff of red and snow- 
white gypsum, interstratified with marl and sand- 
stone, and often of a pearly whiteness. It is 
sixty feet high, and nearly perpendicular, exhibit- 
ing a curious and beautiful appearance, from the 
alternating bands of gypsum and red sandstone. 
The Wapsky, with its tributary the Riviere du 
Chute, and the Southwest Miramichi River, have 
interlocking waters. Possibly a canoe could be 
" portaged" across, although the task would doubt- 
less be very difficult. 

Three Brooks stream flows from the north, a 
few miles below the apex of the Wapsky Flat. 
On the east branch we discover an excellent 
trout pool. The Otella or Odell River flows from 
the south, its two principal branches uniting in a 
picturesque ravine, where the country is dotted 



THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 81 

with curious little mounds, almost exactly pyram- 
idal in form. 

An interesting feature of the lower Tobique is 
the almost tropical luxuriance of the vegetation. 
On the banks are elms and mountain ash of enor- 
mous height, with tall grass, and ferns four or 
five feet high. Even the extreme severity of the 
winters seems unable to check the natural out- 
growth of soils so fertile. At the Red Eapids, 
twelve miles above the mouth, where beds of 
bright red sandstone cross obliquely the bed of 
the stream, we find the only rough water that the 
canoeist need encounter, except the rapids in the 
narrows ; but while difficult to ascend by poling, 
the Red Rapids are not at all dangerous. An 
Indian guide, inclined to be lazy, — and how 
many Indian guides are not ? — likes to make the 
most of them as an excuse for shortening the 
day's journey and protracting his employment. 

Within a circle, having a twelve-mile radius, 
we find the Grand Falls of the St. John, the 
Aroostook Fall, and the Tobique Narrows, three 
lasting monuments of the glacial era. It is prob- 
able that, immediately after the disturbance which 
turned the rivers from their respective channels, 
three mighty cataracts were formed, situated at 
the lower ends of the modern gorges, and equal to 
their present massive walls in height. A process 
of erosion began, continued through the countless 
ages, a very race of waterfalls, a never-ceasing 



82 THE ST. EIVEE JOHN. 

struggle to wear away the barriers of rock. With 
what result ? The Grand Falls have moved one 
mile and lost one half their height and majesty. 
The Aroostook, moving too speedily, has formed 
a series of cascades, which being less in power 
will long remain there. The Tobique, least in 
volume while greatest in erosive might, alone has 
conquered the impeding barrier, and now it gam- 
bols over the vanquished ledges in some rather 
lively rapids, the sole remaining remnants of the 
gTeat post-glacial cataract. In a few more ages 
the narrows will undoubtedly present the placid 
surface of a lake. The obstruction which created 
Grand Falls stemmed back the water above, but 
the similar impediment which caused the Tobique 
Narrows merely heaj)ed up large quantities of 
traveling sand in what is called " The Grand 
Bar," the water plainly increasing instead of di- 
minishing in speed. Canoes may descend the nar- 
rows with safety, although the novice sometimes 
experiences such an uprising of the hair as would 
put " the fretful porcupine " to shame ; and the 
stream diivers steer small rafts down during the 
spring floods. Within the lower and middle por- 
tions of the gorge the water is tranquil and very 
deep, but so beautifully transparent that the in- 
terlacing veins of pure white calcite may be seen 
distinctly at a depth of sixty feet, contrasting, as 
they do, so strongly with the darker ledges of 
slate. 



THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 83 

The reader may be disappointed to learn that 
the public are debarred from using the Tobique 
as other than a natural highway. Such is the 
case, however, the local government having leased 
it for salmon and trout fishing to the same syndi- 
cate that controls Green Kiver. Without discus- 
sing the propriety of this mode of raising provin- 
cial revenue, we merely remark that the policy 
has caused much ill feeling on the Tobique. So 
general was the discontent at first, that when some 
poachers fired upon a fishing party, instantly 
killing the wife of one of the lessees, the sympa- 
thetic jurymen could not be convinced that the 
crime was one of higher degree than manslaughter. 
The great salmon pools of the Tobique are dis- 
tributed along the river as follows, viz, : Four on 
the Serpentine, at distances almost equally apart, 
dividing that river into four equal sections ; two 
within the first mile and a half of the Eight Hand 
Branch below the confluence of the streams flow- 
ing from Long and Trousers lakes; one on the 
Right Hand Branch about three miles above the 
Serpentine; two close together and perhaps five 
miles below the Serpentine ; one, called the Seven 
Mile Pool, it being just that distance above the 
Nictaux; one about half a mile above the Ma- 
mozekel ; one at the Nictaux or Forks ; one at the 
mouth of Cedar Brook on the Little Tobique; 
one two miles and one four miles below the Nic- 
taux ; one just above Riley Brook, and one a mile 



84 THE ST. JOHN RIVER. 

and a half below Riley Brook : seventeen in all. 
Of course salmon may be taken at many otlier 
places, and in addition to the generally good trout 
fishing there are pools of special excellence on 
the Serpentine, three miles below the lake, and 
on the main Tobique at the mouth of a small 
brook entering from the south, a little below 
Gulquac. Trousers Lake and another small lake 
near by are also considered good waters for trout. 
The Tobique salmon is smaller than the Resti- 
gouche, and less gamey than the Miramichi 
salmon, but affords very good sport nevertheless. 
A gentleman when visiting the river in 1863 
said : " The trout are so numerous and voracious 
as to jump at the canoe paddles; " while in 1842 a 
settler living near the mouth killed twelve barrels 
of salmon with a single spear. Those happy days 
have long gone by, and with civilization's onward 
march the whole basin of the St. John is rapidly 
deteriorating as a country for fish and game. 

STATISTICS. 

The total drainage area of the St. John River 
above Andover is about 13,200 square miles. 
This estimate is somewhat reduced by excluding 
the Allagash above the Chamberlain dam. Con- 
sidering the South or Baker Branch as the prin- 
cipal source, all the tributaries entering on the 
left-hand side drain collectively 7,617 square 
miles, all tributaries entering from the right- 



THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 85 

hand side 5,488 square miles. It is a peculiar 
feature of the system that fourteen large tributa- 
ries enter from the left side, and only three, the 
AUagash, Fish, and Aroostook rivers, from the 
right. All the streams having pure transparent 
water are in the first group. 

The basin of the St. John in Maine covers 
7,638 square miles, or about one fourth the land 
surface of the State. 

Mr. Walter Wells, superintendent of the hy- 
drographic survey in Maine, estimates the mean 
annual discharge of the Aroostook at 81,900,000,- 
000 cubic feet, and the discharges of the Great 
Fish and Allagash rivers at 34,710,000,000 and 
57,720,000,000 cubic feet respectively, while the 
whole basin of the St. John in Maine sheds 284,- 
000,000,000 cubic feet of water annually. The 
Aroostook basin is computed to contain 59.95 
square miles of lake surface, Squapan Lake 
(superficial area 10 square miles) being the lar- 
gest body of water; the Allagash basin 120.90 
square miles. Chamberlain (20 square miles) 
being the largest lake ; Fish River basin 89 
square miles, with individual lake areas as fol- 
lows, viz. : Long Lake, 19 square miles ; Square 
Lake, 15 ; Eagle Lake, 22 ; Nadeau Lake, 5.50 ; 
Portage Lake, 8.50 ; and Great Fish Lake, 7 
square miles ; the St. Francis basin, 36.65 square 
miles ; and the whole St. John basin in Maine, 
350 square miles. By the Chamberlain dam the 



86 THE ST. JOHN BIVER. 

flowage of 36 square miles of the AUagasli lakes 
is turned southeasterly into the Penobscot River. 

FROM ANDOVER TO WOODSTOCK. 

Between Andover and Woodstock (fifty miles) 
the St. John winds about from east to west, 
and west to east, in a series of gentle curves, 
the general course remaining north and south. 
It is everywhere a moderately deep and very 
swiftly flowing river, not varying greatly in width 
except where the channel separates to inclose an 
island. Many natural terraces are found, often 
forming banks of gravel and sand from thirty to 
fifty feet high ; elsewhere the hills slope up from 
the water's edge to a considerable height. On 
both terraces and slopes the land is fertile and 
under cultivation. From the summit of Moose 
Mountain, a rugged peak, over eight hundred 
feet high, in the vicinity of the Muniac stream, 
deriving its name from a resemblance, when 
viewed at a distance, to the body and hornless 
head of a moose, a magnificent view may be ob- 
tained of the river, winding, for many miles, like 
a silvery streak, through a country so patched 
with dark spruce forest, and cultivated tracts of 
a lighter green, as to give the whole scene the 
appearance of a gigantic chess-board. A similar 
view is obtained from Stickney Brook ridge, 
nearly opposite Florenceville. 

Andover village, which consists of a long row 



THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 87 

of pleasant cottages near the brink of a terrace 
overlooking the river and the picturesquely wooded 
ridge that rises abruptly from the opposite bank, 
is the dividing point between the English and 
French civilizations of Western New Brunswick. 
Having passed it, on our downward voyage, we 
find the settled country not so much confined to 
the river valley as hitherto, but extending for 
many miles to the eastward and westward. A 
branch of the Canadian Pacific Railway follows 
the east bank quite closely, utilizing the level 
table lands on the natural terraces. The princi- 
pal villages along the river are Kent, Florence- 
ville, Hartland, and Upper Woodstock, while 
Glassville, Centreville, and other small distribu- 
ting centres are scattered over " the back country." 
At the mouth of Hardwood Creek there is a vil- 
lage bearing the unpoetical name of "Bumf raw," 
a rather humorous corruption of the French 
"bois franche.^^ Upper Woodstock is called 
" Hardscrabble," rather ridiculously, because it is 
a " hard scrabble," or difficult and laborious task, 
to ascend a rapid below it. 

In the first few miles below Andover, large 
masses of rock, seemingly detached, rise here and 
there above the river's surface, but they are not 
surrounded by rough water. The current is swift 
everywhere, but most rapid at "Fitz Herbert's 
Rips " (between the two Guisiguit rivers), on the 
channels surrounding Green Island, above the Big 



88 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

Presque Isle River, and from the Little Presque 
Isle to Hartland Bar. 

The principal streams entering from the west 
are the Riviere du Chute, the Upper and Lower 
Guisiguit, and the Big and Little Presque Isle 
rivers ; the principal ones entering from the east 
are the Muniac, Monquart, Shikitehawk, and Bec- 
caguimec rivers, The Riviere du Chute is a 
small stream of very clear water, with a natural 
fall at the mouth, the height of which has been 
reduced from sixty to eight feet by long-continued 
erosive action. The Monquart and Shikitehawk 
are also transparently clear, and should be good 
for trout, but they rise in a very mountainous 
country near the sources of the Odell River 
(a branch of the Tobique) and the Southwest 
Branch of the Miramichi, and are too shallow and 
rocky for a convenient ascent by canoe. There 
is a rather picturesque ravine and fall on the 
Shikitehawk, and at Kent Station, near its mouth, 
an excellent portage road, but sixteen miles in 
length, connects the St. John River with the 
Miramichi at Foreston. The Miramichi is a 
famous salmon stream, and many sportsmen use 
this road annually as an easy way of reaching it. 
The Big Presque Isle River (not to be confounded 
with its namesake on the Aroostook) is a goodly 
stream of clear and rapid water, running forty 
miles, and more or less navigable by canoe for 
half that distance. It winds around Mars Hill, 



THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 89 

of international celebrity, whicli is the highest 
mountain on the middle St. John (1,600 feet), 
and commands an unrivaled view of the country. 
Two miles below Hartland the Little Pokiok 
stream emerges from a cavernous cleft in the 
rocks. Ih. fact, many minor brooks along this 
part of the river, and Acker Brook especially, 
flow for some distance through deep ravines. 

Woodstock (4,500) is the third city in size 
and commercial importance within the St. John 
River valley. It contains many pleasing private 
residences, but no very noteworthy public build- 
ings, and is the trade centre for the populous 
agricultural districts of Carleton County. 

THE BECCAGUIMEC RIVER. 

At Hartland village, twelve miles above 
Woodstock, the Beccaguimec Eiver enters the 
St. John from the east, a stream, that is, in its 
general course, the most crooked of all the tribu- 
taries, while having a greater descent between 
source and mouth than any other branch of equal 
length. It is more or less " canoeable " for sev- 
enteen or eighteen miles, the rapid descent being 
largely caused by a few falls on the north branch ; 
and the Coldstream, a tributary, is also navigable 
at medium water. The north and south branches 
flow from opposite directions for fifteen miles 
above their junction, and then their valleys grad- 
ually approach until at their heads they overlap. 



90 THE ST. JOHN RIVER. 

" Guimec " Lake, tlie source of the south branch, 
is small but picturesque, and most easily reached 
from Millville, a station on the Canadian Pacific 
Railway. 

In 1885 two geological explorers attempted to 
reach " Guimec " Lake by wading up the stream. 
Toiling onward, now in the water, now in the 
neighboring swamps, while the miserable brook 
dwindled down to microscopical proportions, they 
reached a great morass, and still no lake in 
sight. A rain came on, no light one, and unable 
to return by reason of approaching darkness, sup- 
perless, shelterless, wet and worn, they stretched 
upon a heap of rotten wood, composing their 
weary limbs for sleeplessness. When morning 
dawned they rose much unrefreshed, and shaking 
off the ants and centipedes set forth for Millville. 
It was a most inglorious retreat. 

The Beccaguimec water is pure and clear, and 
the trout fishing on the north branch probably 
the best obtainable between Andover and Freder- 
icton. 

THE MEDUXNIKEAG EIVER. 

The Meduxnikeag River (drainage area about 
420 square miles), which unites with the St. John 
at Woodstock, is formed by the junction of two 
streams of nearly equal size twelve miles above 
the mouth, one flowing southerly from the Aroos- 
took watershed, the other northerly through one 
of the richest farming districts of Maine. Houlton, 



THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 91 

an ambitious rival of Woodstock, and tlie metrop- 
olis of Aroostook Comity, is situated on the south 
branch. Its business section is clustered about 
an open square, from which pleasant residential 
streets extend in several directions. 

In the more remote country districts above 
Grand Falls, the watercourses afford the most con- 
venient or only routes for travel ; consequently 
the degree of each stream's " navigability " is a 
matter of common knowledge ; but below Andover 
the country is so covered by a network of roads, 
that a person interested in any stream whose cur- 
rent it requires a more or less experienced poler 
to overcome, rather prefers to walk or drive there 
than to incur fatigue and strain his canoe in the 
arduous exercise of swinging the pole. Especially 
is this true of the Meduxnikeag, but the possible 
canoeist may be interested in learning that there 
is a waterfall near the forks, and a very pretty 
vaUey from there to Woodstock. 

FROM WOODSTOCK TO FREDERICTON. 

Quite various are the aspects which the river 
presents between Woodstock and Fredericton, a 
distance of sixty-three miles. Above Eel River 
the current is everywhere swift, the channel often 
splitting to inclose an alluvial island. Indeed, we 
find no islands in the St. John above Belleisle 
Bay which are not composed purely of alluvium, 
or glacial drift. The hills reach a considerable 



92 THE ST. JOHN EIVEB. 

altitude on both sides of the valley, although the 
immediate river banks are neither as uniformly- 
abrupt nor as stony as in the vicinity of Monquart 
and Muniac ; hence affording better facilities for 
camping. The scenery is decidedly picturesque, 
especially for ten miles below Woodstock and the 
same distance above Fredericton. A granite belt 
crosses the valley between the Eel and Nacawick 
rivers, and as no geological formation roughens a 
country like a granite one, whether granite in situ 
or granite superficially distributed by glacial ac- 
tion, the river becomes obstructed by ledges and 
loose lying drift, over which the water pours in a 
rapid called the Meductic Fall. Canoes may de- 
scend without inconvenience by keeping well to 
the right-hand bank, and the Woodstock steamer 
ascends at high water. In fact the Meductic is a 
mere pigmy when compared with such aquatic to- 
boggan slides as endanger navigation above the 
Allagash. Below the fall the river is more slug- 
gish and much deeper, with a maximum depth of 
fifty-four feet at Pokiok Eddy, measured at low 
water. There was an ancient fort above Meduc- 
tic, on the west bank, and near it an Indian burial 
ground, the site of which is now overgrown by 
hawthorn-trees. 

The sharpest and most peculiar twist in the 
river channel below Grand Falls is the Nacka- 
wick Bend, after rounding which the stream runs 
perfectly straight for eighteen miles in a wide 



THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 93 

and shallow bed filled with islands. People 
sometimes call this straight course the Upper 
Reach, as it is of equal length with the Long 
Reach below Gagetown, although quite unlike 
in every other respect. The shallow waters and 
sand-bars, though accompanied by a quickening 
of the current, allow teams to ford the channel 
in various places during the summer months. 
Horses would probably have to swim some dis- 
tance in crossing elsewhere below Edmundston, 
unless at the great bar near Hartland. At the 
foot of the Upper Reach the river turns again, 
at an exact right angle ; a whirlpool, known 
as Burgoyne's Eddy, forming at high water, 
near the right-hand bank. The current slackens 
very much, and the water for nine miles is as 
deep as in the narrow channel below Meductic ; 
then the whole appearance of the river changes 
once more. The Keswick stream enters from the 
north, ten miles above Fredericton, and below it 
the river bed is literally choked with islands of 
all dimensions, and divided into innumerable 
channels of varying width, depth, and rapidity. 
High hills, higher than any we have seen below 
Eel River, uprise on both sides, their slopes be- 
ing in great part under cultivation. From the 
various summits, and more especially from Rock- 
land Hill, a view of the closely clustered Keswick 
Islands is obtained, such as is ever appreciated, 
and rarely forgotten. At Sugar Island, the 



94 THE ST. JOHN EIVEE. 

largest of the group, the St. John measures two 
miles and a half from bank to bank, its greatest 
width above Fredericton. Savage Island, the 
second in area, was a famous rendezvous of the 
Maliseets in early days, and here they are said to 
have been attacked by the restless Mohawks, who 
descended the river for scalps and glory. A 
bird's-eye view of the island may be had from 
Clarke's or Currie's Mountain, a detached pre- 
cipitous peak, with a ravine behind, where many 
more of our inoffensive Maliseets became pre- 
maturely bald at the touch of the keen-edged 
tomahawk, unless tradition lies. All the islands 
are low, grassy, and fringed with elm-trees and 
bushes, and, excepting a few small portions of 
them, annually submerged by the spring floods. 
The few dry spots are little himimocks, formed 
from nothing more durable than the common 
alluvium, on which early settlers and adventurous 
farmers built houses occasionally in years gone 
by. How they must have enjoyed the spectacle 
of the spring ice roaring, grinding, and crunching 
on every side, and momentarily threatening to 
pile against their little cottages and sweep them 
ruthlessly down-stream ! For three days, at least, 
these farmers on the knolls, provided they had 
missed the last opportunity of reaching the main 
land, must have moved in a social circle exclu- 
sively confined to members of their own fami- 
lies, — a sufficient time to enable our friend, Mr. 



THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 95 

Harvey, to reach civilization from his log house 
on the AUagash. Between Sugar and Savage 
islands the principal body of the water shifts 
from the southwest to the northeast side of the 
valley, through a channel called the Grand Pas- 
sage, but it gradually returns before reaching 
Fredericton. 

The extraordinary tides of the Bay of Fundy 
influence the river as far as Chapel Bar, above 
Spring Hill, so we find no more swift currents. 
On this account the Fredericton canoeists are 
better accustomed to the paddle than the pole. 

MINOE TRIBUTAEIES BELOW WOODSTOCK. 

We now return to Woodstock to see what trib- 
utarial contributions the St. John receives between 
that city and Fredericton. The principal ones, 
briefly enumerated, are as follows : from the left- 
hand side, Gibson's Mill Stream, and the Nack- 
awick, Koack, Mactaquac, Keswick, and Nash- 
waaksis rivers; from the right-hand side. Bull's 
Creek, the Eel, Shogomoc, and Pokiok rivers, and 
Upper Garden's and Long's creeks. The highest 
fall in the St. John River syste^i, to the writer's 
knowledge and belief, is that called Hay's Fall, 
on a small brook entering the main river midway 
between Bull's Creek and Eel River. Here the 
water takes a perpendicular leap of ninety feet 
from a rugged cliff, at the brow and base of which 
good views may be obtained. A thick growth of 



96 THE ST. JOHN BIVER. 

tall spruces and firs adds picturesqueness, but the 
stream is unfortunately so small as to disappear 
entirely in the summer season, when the fall 
dwindles gradually down to a collection of wet 
and dripping moss. 

Gibson's Mill Stream is very much larger, and 
the narrows, three miles above the mouth, con- 
taining a series of rough cascades flanked by per- 
pendicular cliffs of a great but as yet unmeasured 
height, will repay a visit at any time. As was 
noted of Acker Brook, above Woodstock, a very 
small stream may have a very deep valley of ero- 
sion, a fact again illustrated by the presence of a 
deep ravine midway between Eel and Shogomoc 
rivers, where the little Sullivan's Creek trickles 
out to the St. John. So the small Koack River 
has eroded a chasm so dark and cavernous that 
all attempts to take photographs within are said 
to fail through insufficiency of light. The shad- 
ows of lofty firs and spruces contribute materially 
to the gloom of this romantic spot. Within the 
chasm there is a fall, perhaps eighty feet in height. 
Upper and Lower Garden's and Kelly's creeks 
all have picturesque falls, and they were toler- 
ably good trout brooks some years ago. The 
Mactaquac is somewhat larger, and has two prin- 
cipal tributaries, one flowing from Scotch Lake in 
Queensbury. Its lower valley presents an attrac- 
tive appearance, but the upper waters are rarely 
visited by sportsmen, and probably unattainable 
by canoe in the fishing season. 



THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 97 

EEL RIVER. 

Eel River rises in a small pond, called the Third 
Eel River Lake, near Skiff Lake, the source of a 
branch of the St. Croix. It drains an area of two 
hundred and thirty square miles, probably deriv- 
ing its name from the crooked course it takes 
while doing so. The first of the three Eel River 
lakes is the largest, receiving the overflow of the 
second through a small unnavigable stream of 
very rapid descent. From the first lake to Ben- 
ton village navigation by canoe is comparatively 
easy, although short portages are necessary around 
two waterfalls, one a few miles below the lake, 
the other at Dinnen's Mill, above the mouth of a 
tributary oddly named Pok'o'moonshine Brook. 
Some people say that " Pok'o'moonshine " is of 
Indian origin, and others that " pok "is an abbre- 
viation of " poke," meaning a ray, as a " poke of 
light." The existence of a lake called Sunpoke 
on the Oromocto River has a decided tendency to 
support the latter view. In early times Eel River 
was a much used thoroughfare between the St. 
John and the St. Croix, a portage of three miles, 
called Metagmuckschesh, connecting it with North 
Lake, the head of the Chiputnetecook chain. 
Metagmuckschesh has been a great Indian road 
for centuries, various reputable writers asserting 
that the flat rocks (a coarse granite), over which 
the narrow file of Indians passed, have been worn 



98 THE ST. JOHN BIVJER. 

to a depth of several inclies by the tread of moc- 
casined feet. Mr. Frederick Kidder, in his work 
on "Military operations in Eastern Maine and 
Nova Scotia during the Revolution," says of this 
pathway: "It has undoubtedly been used for 
many centuries, and may be pronounced the most 
ancient evidence of mankind in New England." 
In 1777, Col. John Allen, attended by about five 
hundred Indians and colonists, a majority of whom 
were women and children, ascended Eel River and 
crossed Metagmuckshcesh to North Lake, depart- 
ing from Fort Meductic on the 13th day of July. 
The lower course of Eel River is obstructed by 
falls and rapids, on which account the Indians car- 
ried their canoes overland from Meductic to Ben- 
ton (five miles) when journeying westward from 
the St. John to the St. Croix and Matawamkeag 
via Metagmuckschesh, but frequently descended 
the stiieam when traveling the opposite way. 

The pickerel, a veritable fresh -water shark, 
seems to have received in the First Eel River Lake 
its primary introduction to the waters of the St. 
John, whence it has spread over all the lower trib- 
utaries, wherever the current is sluggish, proving 
an inveterate foe to many other fishes, more espe- 
cially to trout. Its fondness for the trout prob- 
ably arises from the fact of their being scaleless, 
and consequently more " swallowable." Luckily 
the pickerel dislikes rapid water, and is seldom 
found in the St. John above Eel River. 



THJ7 MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 99 

THE SHOGOMOC RIVEK. 

The Shogomoc River, although within the 
region of granite, is navigable from a short dis- 
tance above the mouth. At the mouth we find it 
a most tumultuous torrent, rushing among, and 
tumbling over, a typical collection of ledges and 
granitic bowlders. There are innumerable lakes 
on the stream (Great Shogomoc Lake being very 
much the largest), and several of them are abun- 
dantly stocked with trout. The Shogomoc rises 
near the PaKrey Mountains, and Canterbury 
Station, on the Woodstock branch of the Cana- 
dian Pacific Railway, is the most convenient 
starting point for persons desirous of visiting the 
upper waters. 

THE POKIOK RIVER. 

The word " Pokiok " is said to mean " narrow 
opening," and we certainly find on this river a 
very narrow opening. Barely twenty-five feet 
apart, but from fifty to seventy feet high, and 
accurately perpendicular, are the dark red granite 
walls that inclose the Pokiok near its confluence 
with the St. John. Within this strange chasm 
the water makes a series of leaps, aggregating 
about seventy-five feet in height, and roars and 
foams most furiously. In the flood season the 
scene presented is intensely picturesque, more 
especially as in driving along the Woodstock road 



100 THE ST. JOHN EIVEB. 

one cannot see the ravine until almost directly 
over it. A sluiceway has been constructed for the 
passage of planks from the mill, down which an 
elderly "Pokiokean," whose valor is at least on a 
par with his discretion, rides frequently on floating 
timber, for the moderate remuneration of twenty- 
five cents per trip. When paddling down the St. 
John in early spring a blast of cold air is felt, 
which proceeds directly from the Pokiok gorge, 
and is laden with the peculiar odor of the fall. 

The general course of the river, from the source 
in Lake George, is almost exactly parallel to that 
of the St. John, while the flow is in the opposite 
direction. By portaging five miles from Lower 
Prince William to the lake, a down-stream cir- 
cuit can be made (similar to that of the Fish or 
Madawaska rivers, although much shorter), the 
stream being readily navigable for canoes, and 
quite sluggish in places. 

Three " Pokioks " are found in the St. John 
River system. Two have the narrow opening 
which the name is said to signify, but the third, 
a brook entering the Tobique four miles above 
Indian Point, and not previously mentioned, has 
but a simple fall at the mouth, which I found by 
barometric observation to be forty-five feet in 
height. 



THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 101 

THE NACKAWICK RIVER. 

The Nackawick Eiver (drainage area one hun- 
dred and fifty square miles) enters the St. John 
from the northeast, three miles below Pokiok. 
It has three principal branches, all flowing from 
the same watershed that produces the Beccagui- 
mec and Keswick rivers. A line of the Cana- 
dian Pacific Kailway crosses two branches, and 
on the southeast or principal one we find Mill- 
ville, an important centre for the local lumber 
trade. The Nackawick is unadapted for practical 
canoeing, and little would be gained by visiting 
the upper waters, except for the purpose of hook- 
ing small trout, which abound in most of them, 

THE KESWICK RIVER. 

The valleys of the Keswick and Mactaquac are 
separated by Keswick Ridge, which terminates at 
the St. John River in a precipitous cliff called 
" The Peddler's Leap." The Keswick stream rises 
near Beccaguimec Lake, previously mentioned, 
and runs forty miles, emptying into the channel 
behind Sugar Island. 

So well watered is the basin of the St. John, 
that it would be quite impossible to find a tract 
of land four miles square not traversed by some 
brook or rivulet, and several different rivers 
always flow from every well-defined watershed. 
Thus, in the case before us, the Keswick, Nacka- 



102 THE ST. JOHN EIVEB. 

wick and Beccaguimec all rise in a locality the 
central point of wMcli is twenty-five miles east of 
Woodstock, but the mouths of the Keswick and 
Beccaguimec are sixty-five miles apart, measured 
along the valley of the St. John. The common 
watershed is an undulating country, traversed 
here and there by well-defined ridges, dotted with 
small lakes, and clad in a luxuriant greenwood 
forest. It is the border of New Brunswick's 
greatest wilderness, a vast region, untenanted by 
other than the ferm naturce of our common law, 
extending northeastward, without a break, to the 
Intercolonial Railway and the valley of the Kes- 
tigouche River. 

The Keswick's principal branches unite twen- 
ty-two miles from the mouth of the stream, 
and below their confluence the valley gradually 
widens, finally becoming a fertile and thickly 
inhabited farming country. Two large tributa- 
ries enter from the east. The stream is navigable 
by canoe, except in the dry season, with just 
enough rough water to make things cheerful ; and 
the railway follows nearly all its countless mean- 
derings. It is not prominent among the fishing 
rivers, but small trout abound in the upper 
waters. 

THE NASHWAAKSIS RIVER. 

The Nashwaaksis has three principal branches, 
all uniting within a third of a mile, after the fash- 
ion of the Touladi and Tobique, and below the 



THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 103 

forks is navigable, generally speaking, when the 
Keswick is. It contains many deep pools, which 
would naturally harbor trout of very fair dimen- 
sions, but the small-boy crop in this vicinity is 
large, and small boys, here as elsewhere, take 
much delight in fishing. ' The east branch has a 
very pretty symmetrical fall, about fourteen feet 
high, with a deep and thickly wooded ravine be- 
low. Above the fall are the wild meadows, where 
myriads of small trout are hooked every twenty- 
fourth of May. McLeod's Bluff, a bold face of 
volcanic rock with a huge talus at the base, over- 
looks the stream below the forks, and for an 
equal distance above the mouth the water is still, 
and the banks overgrown with leafy trees that 
cast their perfect reflections upon its surface. 
Here the young " Frederictonian " paddles his 
" best girl " on moonlight evenings, and the stilly 
air is often laden with the murmur of suppressed 
voices, blended with, and occasionally interrupted 
by, the buzz of the unceremonious mosquito. 

FKEDERICTON. 

Emerging from the narrow opening of the Nash- 
waaksis we see before us the roofs and spires of 
Fredericton, the political, legal, and educational 
centre of New Brunswick, second in industrial im- 
portance, and first in natural beauty of location, 
of the various communities within the St. John 
River valley. The site of the city is a flat dilu- 



104 THE ST. JOHN BIVJEB. 

vial plain, two miles in length by one in width, 
laved by the river, and backed by wooded hills. 
The streets are broad and regular, those parallel 
with the water having been named after the reign- 
ing sovereigns at the time of the town's incorpo- 
ration. Queen and King streets are nearest the 
river bank, Charlotte and George the most remote, 
and Brunswick in the centre, the group thus form- 
ing the combination : " Queen Charlotte (and) 
King George (of the house of) Brunswick." 

Fredericton is justly termed " The Forest City " 
from the number and beauty of its shade trees. 
The elms attain a loftiness and graceful symmetry 
but rarely found, while willows of gigantic size 
adorn the water front in many places. Almost at 
the upper end of the flat, and opposite the Nash- 
waaksis, stands Government House, the official 
residence of nearly all New Brunswick's governors, 
an historic pile, thoroughly suggestive of the pre- 
conf ederate aristocracy. The cathedral, a beauti- 
ful Gothic edifice, modeled after the parish church 
at Sandringham in England, is also near the river, 
while half way up the hill behind the town stands 
the University of New Brunswick, formerly, and 
much more appropriately, ^termed " King's Col- 
lege." Among the more historic buildings are the 
officers' barracks, which overlook a level willow- 
shaded lawn, much used in peace for tennis, and 
in war for drill. 

The number and beauty of the landed estates 



THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN, 105 

cannot fail to attract attention. Scattered about 
on plain and hillside, within the town, without 
the town, we find them everywhere : broad acres, 
spreading in grassy fields, and lawns, and fertile 
garden lots. Some tottering chimneys near the 
river bank denote the site of Eose Hall, a transi- 
tory asylum of the traitor Arnold subsequent to 
his discovery and inglorious northward flight; 
while at the western apex of the city flat, faced by 
the water, and shadowed by lofty pines, appears 
the ruined Hermitage. 

Fredericton has been visited by several de- 
structive conflagrations. In 1825 the Govern- 
ment House, with scores of shops and dwellings, 
was laid in ruins. The great fire of 1850 proved 
equally calamitous. 

On the twenty-second day of February, 1785, 
Sir Guy Carleton made it the seat of govern- 
ment, when the ancient name " St. Anne's " was 
changed to " Frederick Town " in honor of His 
Eoyal Highness, the Bishop of Osnaburg. 

THE NASHWAAK RIVER. 

The Nashwaak, running about seventy-five 
miles, and draining five hundred axid eighty square 
miles, is somewhat larger than any tributary 
stream we have passed below the Tobique. It 
flows from St. Mary's Lake, a remote little body of 
water much more easily reached by a portage of a 
few miles from the valley of the Southwest Mira- 



106 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

miclii than by ascending the river to which it gives 
rise. Indeed, it has been stated, by one familiar 
with the successive explorations of Central New 
Brunswick, that nobody ever succeeded in tracing 
the Nashwaak stream upwards to the lake. This, 
if true, is probably because the country in the 
vicinity of the lake resembles that surrounding 
the sources of the Napadogan stream, a principal 
tributary, entering from the east, twelve miles 
above Stanley. The writer visited the east branch 
of the Napadogan in 1885, and found there some 
extensive morasses, covered with a thick scrubby 
growth, as difficult to walk through as deep snow, 
and presenting a weird and gloomy appearance. 
The stream was divided occasionally into several 
channels, and the various members of the party 
became separated, and were only united again 
after much shouting and some hours spent in 
struggling aimlessly through the swamp. 

As instances of a curious nomenclature often 
found in the St. John River system, we have 
mentioned " Bumfraw " and " Pok'o'moonshine " 
Brook, and the Nashwaak country is by no means 
lacking in odd names. Thus one of the most 
northerly tributaries, entering some ten miles 
below the lake, is very comically named " Dough- 
boy Brook " by the lumbermen, in commemora^ 
tion of a camp spree, when the men pelted each 
other with no less adhesive a commodity than soft 
dough. A few miles below this, where the river 



THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 107 

abruptly changes course from south to east, enter 
two streams which are spoken of collectively as 
" The Sisters," but individually as " Miss Nash- 
waak" and "Sister Ann." 

Fourteen miles above Stanley, a little lake 
connects with the main Nashwaak by a short 
thoroughfare, and immediately below the river is 
dammed for lumbering purposes. In the pool 
below the dam small trout are as numerous as 
can be. At the Narrows, also, some seven miles 
above, we may angle successfully for these sport- 
ive speckled beauties. There we find the rough- 
est rapids on the river. The Napadogan stream, 
which is one of the largest tributaries, flows 
entirely within the wilderness, is navigable, but 
not easily so, for canoes at medium water, and 
abounds with small trout. Rocky Brook rises in 
a bleak morass similar to that of the Napadogan. 
Grand John Brook, which enters the Nashwaak 
from the south, and bears the name of an old 
Indian who hunted at one time on all these 
waters, literally teems with small trout, but the 
narrowness of the channel makes it difficult to 
cast a fly with precision. 

Civilization, that is to say settlement, has ad- 
vanced thirty-four miles up the Nashwaak. At 
Stanley village, which is picturesquely perched 
on a hill slope, overlooking the valley, we find 
some houses partially constructed with imported 
timber, the people of old England formerly labor- 



108 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

ing under a slight misappreliension regarding tlie 
extent of available woodland in the New World. 
Stanley has a population of five hundred, which 
is doubled on election days and other auspicious 
occasions. 

Below Stanley the stream is everywhere navi- 
gable for canoes under ordinary conditions ; the 
valley is continuously settled, and fully as pic- 
turesque as that of any other tributary of the St. 
John. Large trout frequent the stream, an oc- 
casional one turning the scales at three pounds ; 
but the most experienced angler can never be 
sure of a catch, so shy are they. A famous pool 
is that at the mouth of Lower McBean's Brook. 
The river gradually increases in volume, receiv- 
ing from the east the Budogan, or Cross Creek, 
the Undenack, or Upper McBean's Brook, Lower 
McBean's Brook, Manzer's Creek, and the Pen- 
nioc; and receiving from the west Tay Creek 
and the Dunbar or Cleuristic stream. The trout 
in Cross Creek and the Undenack are numerous, 
although quite small, but on the Tay, which is 
the longest tributary, and " canoeable " at certain 
times, a few large fish may be taken. Precipitate 
bluffs of sandstone crop out on the Undenack, 
above and below McKenzie's Brook, and in the 
talus beneath one of them, large but imperfect 
lepidodendrons and other fossilized plants of the 
Carboniferous era lie strewn about profusely. 
The Cleuristic divides two miles above the 



THE MIDDLE ST. JOHN. 109 

mouth, the principal branch being called Tin 
Kettle Brook, and one mile from the Nashwaak 
it has a very symmetrical fall, of similar dimen- 
sions to that on the east branch of the Nash- 
waaksis. The Pennioc is the most sluggish of all 
these waters, and navigable for canoes about eight 
miles, where it flows through a thickly-settled 
valley, possessed of much rural beauty. Once 
the stream excelled all others for trout fishing, 
except perhaps the Tay; and even now, over- 
fished as it is, the angler occasionally becomes 
the happy possessor of a much larger trout than 
he ever even dreamed of catching there. 

At the mouth of the Pennioc we find a very 
large alluvial island, strangely large to be in- 
closed by a river of no greater volume than the 
Nashwaak. Marysville, two miles below this, 
which is the metropolis of the Nashwaak valley, 
is a thoroughly one-man place, as much so as 
Pullman, Illinois, its mushroom growth being en- 
tirely due to the enterprise of Mr. Gibson, who 
controls the Nashwaak lumber trade and manu- 
factures cotton. A strange contrast is presented 
by the high brick walls of the cotton-mill, backed, 
as they are, by a greenwood forest which extends 
without a break to the horizon, a very sea of con- 
ical treetops. Indeed, a straight line may be 
drawn through this forest from a point two miles 
from Fredericton that will not cross any road or 
settlement between the St. John River valley and 



110 THE ST. JOHN BIVEE. 

the Intercolonial Railway, and a similar line 
from tlie northwest branch of the Nashwaaksis 
to the Restigouche River. It would be interest- 
ing to compare the area of this huge wilderness 
with that of the similar one surrounding the 
sources of the St. John and AUagash rivers. 

The Nashwaak was said to be, many years ago, 
navigable for wood boats below Marysville, and 
subsequently shallowed by deposits of silt and 
sawdust. Newspapers of 1860 mourn the deteri- 
oration of the once excellent trout fishing off the 
bar at the mouth, where now the water is barely 
deep enough to float a canoe in midsummer. 
Certainly there would be as much wisdom to-day 
in trying to shoot a mastodon on the upper Pen- 
nioc as in attempting to capture trout with a fly 
off Nashwaak Bar. 

At Heron Lake, two and one half miles from 
Eredericton, some interesting glacial phenomena 
may be seen. The water now flows into the 
Nashwaaksis, but the lake is merely held in place 
by a narrow and steep-sided moraine of glacial 
drift, separating it from a deeply-wooded ravine 
that extends eastward into the Nashwaak valley. 
Probably Heron Lake was once the source of Hot 
Water Creek, a tortuous little stream branching 
from the Nashwaak half a mile above the mouth, 
with deep sluggish water, where perch and pick- 
erel roam in shoals, sheltering beneath the grass 
and lily-pads. 



CHAPTEE lY. 

THE LOWER ST. JOHN. 

FROM PREDERICTON TO GAGETOWN. 

The physical features of the St. John alter 
greatly in the thirty-four miles between Frederic- 
ton and Gagetown. Nowhere else is the sur- 
rounding land so low, and on the east a mere 
alluvial flat of great extent separates its waters 
from those drained by the Jemseg. Every indi- 
cation shows that this country was once the bed 
of a great lake, nearly triangular in form, with its 
apex at Salmon River and its base line along the 
valley of the St. John. The greatest length and 
breadth of the lake must have been about the 
same, as the distance from Nashwaak to Jemseg 
(thirty-five miles) nearly equals that from Oro- 
mocto to the head of the lowland on Salmon 
River. A log, in a perfect state of preservation, 
was discovered at a depth of twenty-four feet from 
the surface of this alluvium bed, about opposite 
Oromocto, and, as twenty feet is the difference 
to-day between the top of the flat and low-water 
mark, it would seem to have been deposited at 
a time when sediment first began to form in the 
old lake basin. Who can say what portion of the 



112 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

rock eroded from tlie several gorges of tlie St. 
Jolin, Aroostook, and Tobique now enters into 
tke composition of the Maugerville flat ? There 
were a few, if not many, islands in tke ancient 
lake, including the cup-shaped wooded mound 
below the Nashwaak. The currents of the St. 
John, flowing southeasterly, met those of the 
Grand Lake watershed, flowing southwesterly, 
and the most natural place for the deposit of silt 
and detritus was along the line of their junction, 
where we find the fluviatile deposits of to-day. 
Maugerville and Sheffield parishes are among the 
earliest settled districts on the St. John ; the land 
is exceedingly rich, and annually manured by the 
silt-bearing freshets. It is an extraordinary fact 
that some of the farmers obtain a crop of vegeta- 
bles and a crop of fish from the same piece of 
ground annually. 

The current is sluggish at low-water, but every- 
where perceptible, between Chapel Bar and Gage- 
town, and naturally, on nearing the coast, the ebb 
and flow of the fresh-water tide increases. In 
most, if not aU, rivers of any volume, with estuary 
mouths, the current is continued much beyond the 
point of tide level by the pressure of water above, 
and what has been said of the St. John is strik- 
ingly true, on a much larger scale, of the Amazon 
and Congo. 

The village of Oromocto, although small, is the 
shire-town of Simbury County. Travelers say 



THE LOWER ST. JOHN. 113 

that the potato is the current medium of exchange 
there, but this is hearsay, and needs verification. 

Oromocto was anciently an Indian resort, and 
the husbandman sometimes exposes a grave, or 
implements of stone and pottery, while working 
in the field. The Burton court-house, a few miles 
below the village, commands an unrivaled view 
of the river, with the great intervale islands, and 
the Maugerville flat beyond. 

Gagetown, diminutive as it is, was, until re- 
cently, one of the largest communities in eastern 
North America unconnected with the outside world 
by rail or telegraph. In front flows Gagetown 
Creek, a sluggish stream connecting Hart's and 
Coy's lakes with the river. Grimross Neck, be- 
tween the river and creek, has now become Grim- 
ross Island by the excavation of a short canal, 
which, if we except the canal connecting Telos 
Lake with "Webster Brook on the Penobscot, and 
Morrow's little " dugway " on the Oromocto, prob- 
ably forms the only artificial diversion of water, 
for the facilitation of navigation, on the St. John 
or its tributaries. 

THE OROMOCTO RIVER. 

The Oromocto (Deep Eiver) has two principal 
branches which, emanating from large lakes about 
twenty-five miles apart, unite twenty miles above 
the mouth of the stream, and it flows almost sixty 
miles from the source of the north branch, and 



114 THE ST. JOHN BIVEE. 

drains eight hundred and ten square miles. Nortli 
Brancli Lake, one of tlie largest lakes in tlie St. 
John system, is nine miles long by two and one 
half broad, a low flat country surrounding it, where 
the scenery is not very picturesque. Tweedside 
settlement extends along the northwestern shore ; 
elsewhere the forest touches the beach. An at- 
tractive spot is the White Sand Cove, a shallow 
bay of pure transparent water with a bottom and 
beach of clean light-colored sand, where clusters 
of wild rosebushes grow just above high-water 
mark, a tiny rivulet babbling through them on its 
way to the lake. Good fishing may be had, at 
times, in the White Sand Cove ; for large trout, 
while rapidly diminishing in number, still fre- 
quent the North Branch Lake. A better place for 
small trout is at the southwestern end, where a 
dead water brook enters, navigable for canoes. 

All geographers assert that the overflow of the 
lake found an exit through this brook, pre-gia- 
cially, into the Magaguadavic River, but two miles 
distant, and that the Oromocto water to-day is on 
a level one hundred and twenty feet above that 
river's bed. But how can this be so, when the 
north branch of the Oromocto is navigable ahnost 
everywhere for canoes, and reaches tide level at 
the forks, after running but twenty-five miles; 
while the Magaguadavic, below the supposed 
brook outlet, is fifty miles long, with two large 
falls on it? There is certainly a discrepancy 



THE LOWEE ST. JOHN. 115 

somewliere that local geologists will please ex- 
plain. 

From the southern end of Oromocto Lake a 
portage of three miles leads to Big Kedron Lake 
on the Magaguadavic. The Jaws Basin, where the 
north branch emanates, is probably named from 
its indented coast line ; and south of this a wooded 
peninsula, erroneously called "Kelly's Island," 
connects with the mainland by a narrow isthmus 
of sand. The north branch receives the Lyon 
Stream, the Yoho River, flowing from Lake 
Erina, Hardwood Creek, and Porcupine Brook. 
In the bed of the stream a flat rock appears, cov- 
ered with ancient Indian inscriptions, similar in 
general character to those so commonly found at 
Fairy Lake in Nova Scotia. 

The south branch of the Oromocto issues from 
a lake five miles in length, an excellent water for 
large trout, situated in the rough wilderness of 
northeastern Charlotte County, near the source 
of the Lepreaux. It flows in part through an 
ancient lake basin, where the soil is a fertile allu- 
vium, receiving Sand Brook and Shin and Back 
creeks, all goodly streams. Canoes may ascend 
at ordinary water, but with some difficulty, and at 
least one portage, that around the fall, is neces- 
sary. 

The northern rivers seem to have a much more 
constant water supply than those near the Bay of 
Fundy. Such streams as the Meruimpticook and 



116 THE ST. JOHN BIVEE. 

Quisibis may be navigated at times when tbe 
South Oromocto and Nerepis, draining equal 
areas, bave actually dwindled down to nothing. 

The deadwater so characteristic of the Oro- 
mocto begins, on the north branch, below the nat- 
ural fall at Hart's Mill; on the south branch, 
below Back Creek, and extends uninterruptedly 
to the mouth. There seems to be something a 
little uncanny about this river. The water has 
a peculiar warmth, and, although the current is 
imperceptible, freezes later than the St. John 
River, which it so affects that the ice below the 
mouth of the tributary stream makes an earlier 
start in spring than the ice above. Instead of the 
Oromocto rushing along to unite with the St. 
John, like other tributaries in the flood season, 
the St. John waters pour up the Oromocto and 
flood the lowlands until a lake is formed, thirty 
or forty square miles in area. An amusing story 
is told of a man, who was " on the limits," being 
carried away by this forcible up-current while 
standing on a raft insecurely fastened to the bridge 
at Oromocto village. " On the limits," in New 
Brunswick phraseology, seems to imply a condi- 
tion of involuntary retention within certain pre- 
scribed boundaries, secured by the obligation of 
a bail-bond, and lasting until the lis ^pendens is 
brought before the proper juridical tribunal, or 
otherwise disposed of. 

When the many-colored autumn leaves are 



THE LOWER ST. JOHN. 117 

reflected in the water, and the air is laden with 
the delicious odor of the newly-mown hay, no 
more enchanting spot can be found than the 
Oromocto forks. The banks are alluvial, and 
lined with bushes, beyond which wide fields 
extend, studded with graceful elm-trees. The 
scenery becomes less attractive, however, on de- 
scending the stream, and in the wild meadows an 
air of loneliness and desolation prevails which is 
positively chilling. Here the Rushagonish, also 
deep and dead for many miles, enters from the 
west; the principal tributary of the Oromocto, 
formed by the junction of two streams that rise 
in Kingsclear Parish, above Fredericton. The 
upper waters, as indeed the sources of almost 
every stream in any way contributing to the 
Oromocto, abound in small trout, a rather strange 
fact, considering the habit of that fish to seek the 
purest and coolest water. It would more accord 
with the usual custom if all the trout passed up 
the St. John, and ignored "Deep River " entirely. 
Three Tree Creek enters the Oromocto four 
miles below the forks. The origin of its name is 
obscure. French Lake, two miles long by one 
broad, is a pretty little water, surrounded by 
farm land, and connected with the river by a 
deep, sluggish channel. The trout which formerly 
frequented it have become as scarce as ichthyo- 
saurs since the fatal day when pickerel were 
introduced into the first Eel River lake ; indeed, 



118 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

they decrease everywhere in proportion to the 
spread and multiplication of those " fresh-water 
sharks." As for the objectionable pickerel, they 
rejoice in the slowly moving Oromocto, with its 
rank water-grass and lily-pads, and no other trib- 
utary so teems with them. 

FROM GAGETOWJ^^ TO INDIANTOWN. 

Every phenomenon of the St. John, so far con- 
sidered, has its parallel in some other part of 
the world. Fresh-water tides are common to the 
Amazon, La Platte, St. Lawrence, and many other 
rivers. An alluvial deposit where once there was 
an inland lake or sea surrounds the lower Missis- 
sippi, and the erosive action of the Grand Falls 
resembles that of Niagara ; but between Gagetown 
and Indiantown (fifty miles) the St. John pos- 
sesses certain characteristics not found on any 
other river known to man. Most noticeable is 
the series of great sinuses or lakes that branch 
off eastward, each one almost parallel with the 
others. Grand and Washademoak lakes and 
Belleisle and Kennebecasis bays are their names, 
and they deepen, with the greatest regularity, on 
approaching the seacoast. Grand Lake is the 
shallowest, Kennebecasis Bay the deej)est, and 
the average depth of the Belleisle undoubtedly 
exceeds that of the Washademoak. We may not 
here wade through the dejjths of geological re- 
search to discover the origin of such a strange 



THE LOWER ST. JOHN. 119 

formation, but will merely observe that these ex- 
traordinary fluvial expansions cross the lines of 
glaciation with what seems to be an utter disre- 
gard of scientific principles. 

From Jemseg on the east and Otnabog on the 
west the lands begin to rise, until rugged hills, 
ranging from two to seven hundred feet in height, 
become the common feature of the landscape. 
Above Gagetown one hundred feet is the almost 
uniform elevation along the southwestern side of 
the valley, while the river is bounded easterly by 
great alluvial flats ; but below Otnabog the scenery 
partially loses its quiet rural charm, more resem- 
bling the mountainous aspect of the Hudson. The 
islands remain alluvial as far as the Long Reach, 
when they too change, becoming islands of erosion 
instead of islands of deposit. The mountainous 
character of the valley continues to the Bay of 
Fundy. Here and there a very precipitous bluff 
crops out on the hillside, but usually the slopes 
are not too steep for forest growth and cultivation. 

At Jemseg the river makes a peculiarly sharp 
bend, called " No Man's Friend," where vessels 
must tack laboriously, whether sailing up or down 
before a favoring breeze, the narrowness of the 
channel making the manoeuvre difficult. At Wa- 
shademoak the river is several miles wide, and 
clustered with alluvial islands, of which Upper and 
Lower Musquash and Long islands are the largest. 
Lower Musquash is the most irregularly shaped 



120 THE ST. JOHN BIVEE. 

island in the St. Jolin, doubling to inclose a fresh- 
water lagoon of almost equal area with its land 
surface ; while Long Island contains, in addition 
to a lagoon, a shallow, swampy lake. Probably 
the ancient lake basin formerly occupying the 
present site of the Maugerville flat contracted 
below Jemseg, and expanded again at Washade- 
moak to a width of ^yq or six miles, measured 
from that river's outlet to the head of Otnabog 
Lake. Otnabog River, which enters here, is a 
fairly good trout stream, flowing fifteen or twenty 
miles, in one part through a rugged, deep ravine. 

Behind the steamboat landing, known as " John 
Yanwart's," a steep hill, five hundred feet high, 
rises abruptly from the water level, the summit 
commanding a northward view which many con- 
sider the finest obtainable along the St. John River 
valley. Fannen's Brook enters close by, a small 
stream flowing from a long and narrow lake, 
where excellent trout may be caught. Above 
Belleisle are two small islands, respectively if not 
respectfully called " Pig " and " Hog," unques- 
tionably for want of better names. 

The Long Reach of the St. John, where the 
river flows in a straight southwesterly course for 
fifteen miles, is a mere continuation, both geologi- 
cally and topographically, of the Belleisle valley. 
High hills uprise on both sides, covered with 
alternating patches of forest and farm land, while 
the views, whether from highland or water level, 



THE LOWER ST. JOHN. 121 

are very extensive and picturesque. At the head 
of the Eeach a long and narrow tongue of inter- 
vale land extends from the western shore, inclos- 
ing an inlet, which is called " Mistake Cove," or, 
colloquially, " The Mistake," from its tendency to 
induce strangers to sail in under the impression 
that they have found a mere channel around an 
island. Oak Point forms the most prominent 
projection from the usually regular shore line, 
below which Little Eiver (at least the sixth trib- 
utary of that name below St. Francis) and Jones's 
Creek enter from the west. Little River rises in 
Long Lake, a considerable body of water over- 
looked by a lofty, rugged peak called Blue Moun- 
tain. The stream has one fall, perhaps twelve 
feet high. Below Jones's Creek, the Devil's 
Back, a prominent ridge, uprises on the west. 
Next we find the Devil's Brook. A superstitious 
person might really suppose, on penetrating the 
interior of this region, that His Satanic Majesty 
had lent Dame Nature a helping hand in its for- 
mation, for there is no rougher country in New 
Brunswick than the Nerepis Granite Range. 

A stream entering South Bay, and flowing 
from Spruce Lake, an irregular water six miles 
long, is the last of the St. John's numerous trib- 
utaries, and one of the least as well. 

The river turns abruptly at the lower end of 
" The Reach," runs four miles southwestwardly, 
at a right angle with its former course, passes 



122 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

Brandy Point, and finally widens to form Grand 
Bay. This lake-like expansion is undoubtedly 
tlie broadest part of tbe St. John; but as the 
Kennebecasis branches off to the eastward, one 
cannot tell just what proportion of the bay should 
be computed in the drainage area of the latter 
river. In fact the Bay of Fundy tides often pre- 
dominate over both. 

THE DRAINAGE AREA OF THE JEMSEG RIVER. 

The overflow of the Grand Lake finds an out- 
let through the Jemseg, a deep, sluggish channel, 
six miles in length, draining at low water an 
area of fourteen hundred and seventy square 
miles, or more land than any other tributary, 
excepting the Aroostook and Tobique. As the 
St. John (at high water) covers the lowlands in 
many places. Grand Lake and its surrounding 
waters then find numerous vents, and it is impos- 
sible to estimate the percentage of rainfall car- 
ried off by the Jesmeg alone. 

Grand Lake, already considered in comparison 
with Temiscouata, is twenty-nine miles long, with 
an extreme breadth of seven miles at Cumber- 
land Bay. The superficial area is said to be one 
hundred square miles ; the rise and fall of tide, 
six inches. All portions are shallow, the greatest 
depths rarely exceeding ten fathoms, and for sev- 
eral miles above the Jemseg a channel has been 
dredged to facilitate navigation. The shores are 



THE LOWER ST. JOHN. 123 

low, thereby detracting somewhat from the beauty 
of the landscape. Cultivated lands surround the 
lake on all sides, and the canoeist may find 
attractive camping grounds at any point or bay, 
and may purchase farm supplies that would be 
considered rare luxuries on the more northern 
tributaries of the St. John. Grand Point, ten 
miles above the outlet, is the most prominent 
projection from the northwestern shore ; on the 
south side. Cox, EUesworth, Fanjoy's, and Eob- 
ertson's points are all conspicuous, the bays be- 
tween them having the same general trend as the 
various branches of the St. John below Gage- 
town. At Robertson's Point, a favorite place for 
picnicking, there is a curious stone called Table 
Rock ; and above Grand Point a small lake con- 
nects with Grand by a narrow channel named 
" The Keyhole." Coal Creek, a suitable stream 
for canoeists, enters the northeastern arm of the 
lake, often called " The Range." 

Salmon River, being much the largest feeder of 
Grand Lake, may be considered geographically a 
continuation of the Jemseg. Rising in a level 
tract of wilderness land, forty miles eastward in a 
direct line of the mouth of Coal Creek, the stream 
makes a sweeping bend, known as the Ox Bow, 
whence a portage but three miles long leads to the 
headwaters of the Richibucto River. Below Ox 
Bow the general course is southwesterly. It is a 
quiet stream, navigable for canoes except in the 



124 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

extreme drouglits of summer. The Lake Stream, 
a principal tributary on the south side, must also 
be in some degree navigable, as the Indians for- 
merly "portaged" from it to the north branch of 
the Canaan Eiver. Yet larger is the Gaspereaux, 
which, flowing from Gaspereaux Lake and run- 
ning about thirty miles in a semicircular course, 
enters Salmon River from the north. 

Newcastle Creek, another feeder of Grand Lake, 
entering six miles below Salmon Bay, has two 
principal branches, called the Big and Little 
forks, both of which rise near Gaspereaux Lake. 
In places the stream has cut through horizontal 
rock strata so as to form lofty, precipitous cliffs. " 
Similar canon-like gorges are found also upon 
Salmon River, exposing in places thin veins of 
bituminous coal. 

We now pass to the southwestern end of Grand 
Lake, where, opposite the Jemseg outlet, a deep 
channel, two miles in length, connects its waters 
with Maquapit. Maquapit Lake is connected 
with French Lake by a similar " thoroughfare " 
of somewhat greater length, and into French Lake 
empty Little River, Burpee's Mill Stream, and 
the Portobello. 

The Portobello rises in several little rivulets, 
which cross the old Richibucto road a few miles 
from Fredericton, and unite as they pour down the 
hillside upon the upper portion of that great allu- 
vial flat before spoken of as bounding the St. 



THE LOWER ST. JOHN. 125 

John River on the east from Nashwaak to Jem- 
seg. The name Portobello, which probably means 
" fine portage," or " easy going," has been given 
with great propriety, as the water, winding about 
through a soft and easily eroded alluvium bed, is 
naturally deep and sluggish all the way to French 
Lake, a distance of nearly thirty miles by water 
from the Richibucto road. The Portobello is a 
veritable "meander," even if the NictaiJbc and 
Cabineau rivers are not. No more tortuous stream 
can be found anywhere. The banks are often 
thickly wooded ; and as New Brunswick possibly 
surpasses all other countries in the beauty of its 
autumnal foliage, the canoeist should visit the 
Portobello in October, when the leaves, almost 
meeting overhead, throw dazzling reflections upon 
the water. But beware the Portobello in June; 
there are mosquitoes there then, in number as the 
sands upon the seashore, and words may not be 
found infernal enough to describe their depreda- 
tions. 

Blind Lake, an elongated stagnant pon4 or 
"bogan hole," branching from the Portobello, is 
reached by " portaging " one mile from the St. 
John River, at a point opposite the middle of 
Oromocto Island. The water route thus formed, 
through the Portobello, French, Maquapit, and 
Grand Lakes, and Jemseg, has been named " the 
back way," the ordinary river route being "the 
front way," although never so termed. Lunan 



126 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

Brook, anotlier branch, of tlie Portobello, offers 
the angler a rough wade and a full fish-basket. 
Burpee's Mill Stream, which rises near the Pen- 
nioc, and falls into French Lake after running 
fifteen or twenty miles, is also a very good trout 
stream. The wild country about the sources of 
these brooks is little known, although quite near 
Fredericton, and small lakes exist there, as yet 
unmapped. Moose still frequent the region. 

It would be tedious to enumerate all the 
streams in the St. John system, and throughout 
New Brunswick, that have received no more dis- 
tinguishing an appellation than that of "Little 
Eiver," but tbe largest, undoubtedl}^, is the one 
flowing into French Lake, a stream more or less 
settled for some distance, and " canoeable " at 
ordinary water. Bear Brook, a principal trib- 
utary, may be reached by wood-road from the 
Nashwaak valley, and whoever delights to catch 
very small trout in unheard-of numbers should 
thrust that portion of his body which contains the 
collected perceptive organs of sense into the folds 
of a mosquito netting, and pay the brook a visit. 

Maquapit, somewhat larger than French Lake, 
is seven miles long by two wide, and continued 
eastward in a small river of the same name. 
Loder Creek, a deep and sluggish channel, con- 
nects it with the St. John, thereby cutting off 
from the Sheffield flat what is virtually a great 
alluvial island, larger than any other in the basin 



THE LOWEB ST. JOHN. 127 

of the St. John, thirteen miles in length, with an 
extreme breadth of four miles. The island may 
soon become mainland, as the creek, once a com- 
mon and convenient thoroughfare, is said to be 
badly obstructed by logs deposited during the 
floods. The southwestern shores of Maquapit, 
and of the channel connecting it with Grand 
Lake, were famous Indian camping grounds in 
prehistoric times, and the muddy banks contain 
bits of broken pottery, stone implements curiously 
marked, and flint arrow-heads, which often lie 
exposed where the alluvium has been eroded by 
ice, and the loose material filtered by flood-water. 
Duck-shooting over the marsh lands of the 
Jemseg and Oromocto is a favorite sport, and 
during a freshet, when French, Maquapit, and 
Grand Lakes invariably become one great irreg- 
ular sheet of water, the sportsman may lose his 
bearings in the excitement of the chase. 

THE WASHADEMOAK. 

The Washademoak is second in the series of 
fluvial fiords having the phenomenal parallelism 
already noted ; and the Canaan River, its geogra- 
pnical continuation, which is separated by a very 
low watershed from the sources of the Buctouche 
and Cocagne rivers, rises within fifteen miles of 
tidewater in the Straits of Northumberland. 
Not only these lake-like expansions of the St. 
John, but the valleys of their principal affluents, 
are invariably parallel to each other. 



128 THE ST. JOHN EIVER. 

Canoes may ascend tlie Wasliademoak and 
Canaan to the extreme headwaters, the former 
being twenty, the latter seventy-two miles long. 
The Canaan closely resembles Salmon Eiver of 
Grand Lake in its smooth, swiftly flowing current 
and freedom from falls and rapids. The country 
about the upper portion of the Washademoak 
Lake was settled one hundred years ago, when 
many northern branches of the St. John were 
quite unknown to the invading white man ; but 
wilderness land, wide caribou plains, and peat- 
bogs still surround the Upper Canaan, no settle- 
ment appearing on the stream for many miles. 
The moose and caribou hunter may yet enter the 
forests here with reasonable expectations of suc- 
cess. In average width the lake does not exceed 
three quarters of a mile, but at Belyea's Cove it 
is three, and at Lewis's Cove four miles from 
shore to shore. The Canaan north fork is the 
principal tributary on the right-hand side, and 
many large brooks enter from the south, often 
having picturesque falls where they pour dovm 
into the valley. Cole's Island, one of the few 
inhabited islands on the St. John waters, marks 
the limit of navigation for steamboats and 
schooners. 

THE BELLEISLE. 

Belleisle Bay, eleven miles in length, reposes in 
a deep valley, which is, as usual, continued east- 
ward much beyond the head of the bay, and 



THE LOWER ST. JOHN. 129 

drained by a small stream, likewise called Belle- 
isle. The valley is thickly settled, and very 
fertile, the soil being a dark red loam; and 
the beautiful scenery of the bay may be viewed 
from the deck of a steamboat that ascends several 
times a week. A singular promontory, twenty-five 
miles long by six broad, known as the Kingston 
Peninsula, extends southwesterly between Belle- 
isle and Kennebecasis bays, and is almost divided 
by Kingston Creek, a deep indentation of the 
southern shore of the Belleisle. Skaters pass up 
this creek on their way from Fredericton to St. 
John, to avoid the weak and treacherous ice of 
the Grand Bay. Another deep cove is found near 
the mouth of the Belleisle, running parallel to the 
Long Reach on the St. John, and separated there- 
from by a picturesque promontory called Gor- 
ham's Bluff, the sides of which are bold and 
rocky, the top crowned with woods. The south- 
ern terminus of the Kingston Peninsula is called 
The Land's End. 

THE KENNEBECASIS. 

The Kennebecasis River, or rather lake and 
river, forms another remarkable fiord parallel to 
both the Washademoak and Belleisle. It rises 
in the parish of Waterford, near the sources of 
Pollet River (a stream flowing northerly into the 
Petitcodiac) and the Point Wolf, a small river 
falling directly into the Bay of Fundy ; thence it 



130 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

makes a sweeping bend nortlieast, north, and 
west, and, entering one of the parallel valleys, 
flows southwesterly to Grand Bay on the St. 
John. The river and lake drain eight hundred 
and fifty square miles, and their length combined 
about equals that of the Washademoak and 
Canaan, the lake alone being eighteen miles 
long. The Kennebecasis is " canoe able " every- 
where, and usually navigable for boats as well. 
The principal tributaries are Smith's Creek and 
Studholm's Mill Stream, flowing southerly ; and 
the South Branch, Trout Creek, and Hammond 
River, flowing north and east. Smith's Creek 
winds through a narrow valley at the base of 
Mount Pisgah, and enters the upper Kennebeca- 
sis, more often called Sahnon River. Hammond 
River is fed by numerous rivulets intersecting a 
rugged and highly picturesque country bordering 
the northeastern coast of the Bay of Fundy, and 
above the cultivated land at the mouth it rushes 
through a narrow, rocky gorge. Henry's Lake, 
near Quaco, was once famous for trout ; but since 
the construction of the St. Martin's and Upham 
Railway brought this region within easy access of 
St. Jolm, the number of anglers has ever in- 
creased, the number of fish diminished. The val- 
ley of Hammond River is approximately parallel 
to that of the Kennebecasis. Indeed, all the 
larger streams hereabout seem unable to run oth- 
erwise than parallel to all their neighbors, unless 
when making cross-cuts from valley to valley. 



THE LOWER ST. JOHN. 131 

The largest islands encompassed by any St. 
John water, excluding the great alluvial deposit 
cut off from Sheffield flat by Loder Creek, are 
Long and Darling's islands on the Kennebecasis, 
both inhabited and traversed by roads. Dar- 
ling's Island connects with the mainland at low 
water; but Long Island, which is the most ele- 
vated as well as one of the largest St. John Eiver 
islands, stands well off shore. On the east side 
a huge precipice, called the Minister's Face, rises 
almost perpendicularly from the water's edge. 

Probably no other tributary is so well settled 
as the Kennebecasis, and on no other can soils of 
such fertility be found. Norton and Sussex vales 
are, with Sheffield and Maugerville, the gardens 
of New Brunswick, and the chances are that no 
unopened tracts in the interior will ever equal 
them. The Intercolonial Railway follows the 
valley for many miles, passing through Rothesay, 
Hampton, Sussex, and many other pleasant vil- 
lages, famous as summer resorts for the citizens 
of New Brunswick's somewhat foggy metropolis, 
the city of St. John. 

Boar's Head marks the southerly termination 
of Kennebecasis Bay. Although this steep and 
rugged cape is but fifty feet in height, the water 
is computed to be two hundred and twenty feet 
deep at the base, the greatest depth yet found in 
any St. John water excepting Lake Temiscouata. 



132 THE ST. JOHN BIVER. 

THE NEREPIS RIVER. 

The Nerepis River, entering from the west at 
the foot of the Long Reach, drains a large coun- 
try between the valleys of the Oromocto and St. 
John rivers, and receives ten small affluents. It 
becomes considerably developed, as Mr. Cooney 
would say, by a gradual expansion, and by the 
contributions of a variety of undistinguished rivu- 
lets. Marsh lands extend along the lower course 
(annually flooded by back-water from the St. 
John), where the channel is tortuous and deep, 
the current sluggish. At ordinary water canoes 
may ascend the stream to Fowler's Fall, sixteen 
miles from the mouth. The bridge crossing the 
marsh lands above Westfield is the longest over 
any branch of the St. John, but its architectural 
beauty is somewhat less conspicuous than its 
length. 

Such brooks as flow westerly into the Nerepis 
originate in a myriad of little ponds and lakes, 
occupying the depressions in the Nerepis Gran- 
ite Range. The country is rough and densely 
wooded ; the lakes perfect gems of natural beauty, 
often lying in deep, cup-shaped hollows. Granite 
bowlders of all dimensions often cover the outlets 
and inlets, and over these thick mosses have 
grown, so hiding the little rills of water beneath 
that it is sometimes difficult to trace the direction 
of their flow. Many of the lakes abound with 



THE LOWER ST. JOHN. 133 

trout, but a person wishing to angle or explore 
must shoulder his blanket and provisions, and 
" rough it " in good earnest. 

Near Fowler's Fall the river winds through 
a deep ravine between the mountains, rounding 
the bases of precipitous cliffs, which confine the 
valley for a considerable distance. Douglas 
Mountain, the Eagle Cliffs, and other rugged 
hills add great sublimity to the Nerepis scenery. 

THE TIDAL FALL. 

Two miles from the Boar's Head the river 
enters the Narrows, a deep chasm, flanked by 
lofty mural cliffs, somewhat resembling those on 
the Lower Saguenay, and formed in rocks of sim- 
ilar age. Below the Narrows there is an expan- 
sion, and then another chasm, shorter than the 
first, which contains within its massive walls the 
famous tidal cataract, where the fresh waters of 
the river daily struggle for mastery with the 
phenomenal tides of the bay. The salt water 
first rushes in with great velocity until it reaches 
Grand and Kennebecasis bays, over which it 
spreads quite evenly, losing both speed and 
power ; then the accumulated mass of fresh and 
salt water pours out again in a rapid that com- 
pares with those above Niagara whirlpool. The 
speed of the current here has been estimated at 
twenty-five knots an hour. 

If it were not for the great catch-basin above 



134 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

the Narrows, the full strength of the in-rushing 
flood would be felt many miles up the river, to 
the damage of intervales and islands. The com- 
motion at the fall is due to the presence of ledges 
beneath the surface, while in the Narrows the 
river is always quiet and navigable, but omi- 
nously deep. On the brink of the fall an elevated 
rocky island appears, separated from the eastern 
shore by a narrow channel, and to many the sight 
is more pleasing than that of the Niagara rapids, 
the surroundings having a greater diversity and 
picturesqueness. The best view is obtained from 
the mill on the Fairville side, but the visitor 
should also scramble along the cliff between the 
suspension bridge and Indiantown. 

The depth at the fall, between the mill and 
island, varies from eight to twenty-two feet; 
while in the small basin below, one hundred and 
twenty-six feet is recorded, and, in the larger 
basin above, from one hundred and twenty-two 
to two hundred and four feet. Opposite Indian- 
town the river is one hundred and ninety-five feet 
deep; and in Grand Bay it continues of great 
depth, varying from one hundred and four to one 
hundred and sixty feet. The water thus attains 
greater depths both above and below the Nar- 
rows and fall than in them, a fact favoring the 
theory that the river's passage from Grand Bay 
to the lower basin is through a mere valley of 
erosion, as at Grand Falls, rather than through a 



THE LOWER ST. JOHN. 135 

crack or fissure produced by some violent separa- 
tion of the rock. The existence of a probable 
pre-glacial channel extending from the harbor 
to Kennebecasis Bay, by way of the Marsh Creek 
and Drury's Cove, is yet more conclusive evidence 
in favor of the erosion theory. Professor Hind 
says: "The falls at the mouth of the St. John 
are not falls in the ordinary acceptation of the 
term; they result from the narrow and shallow 
outlet through which the tide, which rises with 
great rapidity, has to pass. The outlet is not 
sufficiently broad or deep to admit the tidal 
waters with their rise, hence a fall inwards is 
produced during the flow; at the ebb the tide 
recedes faster than the outlet of the river can 
admit of the escape of the waters accumulated 
within the inner basin, hence a fall outwards. 
The following are instructions for going through 
the falls, which apply, we believe, to no other 
' falls ' in the world : The falls are level, or it 
is still water, at about three and a half hours on 
the flood, and about two and a half on the ebb ; 
so that they are passable four times in twenty- 
four hours, about ten or fifteen minutes at each 
time. No other rule can be given, as much 
depends on the floods in the river, and the time 
of high water or full sea, which is often hastened 
by southerly winds. For a few days in the 
spring of the year, the height of the water in the 
river renders the passage of the falls extremely 



136 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

difficult." Between the falls and the harbor 
the river contracts, at low water, within a deep 
and narrow channel between banks of slimy 
mud; and thus ignominiously it glides along, 
black and foam-flaked, to mingle its waters with 
the bay. 



CHAPTER V. 

VARIOUS FEATURES OF THE ST. JOHN. 

DESCENT OF THE RIVER. 

The authorities vary so much regarding the 
difference in level between various points on the 
river, that little reliance can be placed upon their 
estimates. Mr. Hind, in his " Preliminary Re- 
port on the Geology of New Brunswick," says : 
"The St. John (south branch) rises in the 
State of Maine (latitude 46° 2") one hundred and 
fifteen miles west of the old Meductic Fort, be- 
low Woodstock. The head of the south branch is 
2,158 feet above the ocean. The source of the 
southwest branch, where the monument is placed 
under the Treaty of Washington, on the boun- 
dary between Canada and Maine, is 1,808 feet ; 
and the northwest branch (in Canada) comes from 
an elevation of 2,358 feet. St. John Lake, on the 
south branch, is 1,075 feet above the ocean ; and 
where the river first enters the province, at St. 
Francis, its waters are not more than 606 feet 
above high tide." The following table shows 
some estimated river levels between Fredericton 
and Grand Falls: — 



138 THE ST. JOHN EIVEB. 

Distance. Height 

Miles. in Inches. 
From Frederieton to the confluence of tide 

"below Chapel Bar 4.47 

Confluence of tide to French Bar 3.15 43 

French Chapel to CUff 's Bar 7.52 129 

Cliff's Bar to the head of Bear Island 5.70 

Bear Island to Nackawick 8.54 227 

Nackawick to Meduetic 4.68 55 

Meductic to Eel River 9.25 220 

Eel River to Griffith's Island 9.43 168 

Griffith's Island to MaemuUen's 12.26 ) .^ 

Maemullen's to Presque Isle 8.08 ) 

Presque Isle to Riviere du Chute 14.77 375 

Riviere du Chute to Tobique 12.71) f^„_ 

Tobique to Grand FaUs 21.12 ) 

Feet. Inches. 
Height of the basin at the foot of the 

Grand Falls above the tide at Chapel Bar. 177 3 

Perpendicular height of the Grand Falls .... 74 

Descent through the Gorge 45 6 

" As the distance," says Mr. Hind, " from 
Frederieton to Grand Falls is 125|^ miles, and 
the ascent by the river is stated to be only 
177 feet 3 inches, according to the levels taken, 
this would give a fall per mile of only one foot 
five inches." Then he says : " The levels taken 
between Frederieton and the Grand FaUs are not 
accurate. The summit of the Grand Falls is 
really more than 400 (419) feet, ascertained by 
leveling from Passamaquoddy Bay; the descent 
between the foot of the Grand Falls and Freder- 
ieton 298 feet instead of 177 ; and the fall per 
mile two feet four inches, instead of one foot five 
inches." 



VARIOUS FEATURES OF THE ST. JOHN. 139 

The descent of the St. John between St. Fran- 
cis and Fish River is said to be 50 feet ; between 
Fish River and Grand Falls, 137 feet ; while the 
St. Francis falls 142 feet from the level of Boun- 
dary Lake, and the AUagash 308 feet between 
Chamberlain Lake and the mouth. The mean 
elevation of the basin of the St. John in Maine 
is about 850 feet. 

Having wandered so far into the statistical 
labyrinth, the following table may be added, 
showing the river's breadth at different places, 
when measured at low water : — 

At Frederieton ^ mile. 

" cuff's Bar 700 feet. 

" Nackawick 4*75 " 

" Meduetie 550 " 

" Eel River 550 " 

" Griffith's Island , 730 " 

" Presquelsle 569 " 

" Riviere du Chute 420 " 

NAVIGATION. 

The various waters of the St, John, including 
all lakes over ten miles long, or expansions of 
navigable streams, are navigable about 2,630 
miles by canoe; about 450 miles by steamboats 
and sailing craft. Steamboats ply regularly on 
the main river between Indiantown and Frederic- 
ton, and on the Jemseg River, Grand and Wa- 
shademoak lakes, and Belleisle and Kennebecasis 
bays. At high water a stern-wheeled, flat-bot- 



140 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

tomed boat ascends the St. John to Woodstock, 
and would proceed to Grand Falls if the swift 
current did not make the voyage too slow to be 
profitable. Above the falls navigation improves 
again, but Edmundston is, for all practical pur- 
poses, the uppermost limit of possible locomotion 
by steam. The Oromocto is deep enough for 
ordinary vessels, but rather too tortuous and 
narrow ; so are the " thoroughfares " connecting 
Grand, Maquapit, and French lakes. Temiscou- 
ata Lake is long enough to warrant steamboat ser- 
vice when the surrounding country becomes more 
populous, and so deep that vessels drawing twice 
as much water as any ever built could safely sail 
everywhere. Grand Bay, the Long Eeach, and 
the great eastern fiords make excellent yachting 
courses. Grand Lake is rather shallow in many 
places, but steamers and wood boats pass regularly 
from the Jemseg to Salmon River. Some dredg- 
ing has been necessary on the St. John River 
above Oromocto. 

One afternoon in 1850 a strange sound alarmed 
the good citizens of Fredericton. It proceeded 
from the water, and was of such unusual char- 
acter, so shrill and piercing, that many sup- 
posed it to be the war-whoop of a savage foe, or 
the snort of some antediluvian monster that had 
lain concealed for centuries beneath the river's 
mud. Everybody hastened to the water front, 
where no more terrible object appeared than the 



VARIOUS FEATURES OF THE ST. JOHN. 141 

little steamboat Madawaska, steaming lazily up 
the stream. A few valiant citizens carried fire- 
arms on that occasion. Several steamboats had 
been placed upon the river prior to 1850, but the 
Madawaska was the first to carry a whistle ; 
hence the unusual sound and the widespread ex- 
citement. 

Whether we are on the St. John or any tribu- 
tary, the canoe is indispensable to complete and 
satisfactory exploration. 

Some of the journeys made with the aid of 
rapid currents are simply phenomenal. In May, 
1887, during that year's remarkable flood, the 
Messrs. Straton paddled from the lower basin at 
Grand Falls to Fredericton, a distance conserva- 
tively estimated at one hundred and twenty-five 
miles, in fourteen hours and forty-six minutes, 
delaying at Woodstock to dispatch a telegram. 
On several occasions camping parties have cov- 
ered the sixty-two miles between AUagash Fall 
and Edmundston in one day ; and a lessee of the 
Tobique, at ordinary water, decamped one morn- 
ing ten miles above the Nictaux, and next morning, 
but an hour or two later, grounded his canoe upon 
the beach at Andover. Several times have Fred- 
ericton canoeists, in the freshet season, paddled 
home from Shogomoc in four and one half hours, 
a distance of forty-five miles, and instances of fast 
canoeing over various St. John waters might be 
multiplied indefinitely. The statement that un- 



142 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

wieldy log-rafts leave Tobique at sunrise during 
higli water, and shortly after nightfall reach 
Springhill, one hundred miles below, without other 
motive power than the current, would challenge 
all belief, if the fact of their annually doing so 
was not well known. 

Col. John Allen, in his " Eeport on the Indian 
Tribes " written in 1793, says : " The Indians have 
told me, when the stream was rapid, they have 
delivered letters to the French commanding officer 
at the mouth of the St. John in four days from 
Quebec." 

BRIDGES AND FERRIES. 

Eleven bridges span the St. John River, six 
for roads and ^yq for railways. The steel canti- 
lever bridge of the St. John Bridge Company 
and the suspension bridge at Fairville, both cross- 
ing below the tidal fall, nearly one hundred feet 
above the water, and the suspension bridge across 
the Grand Falls gorge, are the most interesting, 
while the Fredericton bridges are conspicuous for 
length. The only large tributaries yet unbridged 
are the Allagash and Little Black rivers. 

A peculiar feature of the upper St. John is the 
number of ferries that are worked solely by the 
river current. A wire is suspended from bank to 
bank fifteen or twenty feet above water, and the 
ferry attached at both ends to a rope, which 
passes over a little wheel, the latter running along 



VAEIOUS FEATUBES OF THE ST. JOHN. 143 

the wire. By regulating the position of the rope, 
the ends of the ferry are kept at unequal distances 
from the wire, and in the direction of that end 
which is least distant the said ferry invariably 
moves. 

Horse ferries are used in a few places, and, 
until recent years, three steam ferries, peculiarly 
unique in architectural design, carried passengers, 
when any offered themselves to be carried, and at 
other times their captains and engineers, between 
Fredericton and its trans-riparian suburbs. 

DENUDATIOlSr OP THE FOREST. 

Although the only affluents of the St. John yet 
totally surromided by forest are the south and 
southwest branches, there is but one settlement in 
the basin of the northwest branch, and that con- 
sists of a few French farms, near small brooks 
entering La Riviere Noire, a branch of the Daa- 
quam. On Black River the only settlement is 
St. Pamphile, and Little Black River and the 
Chemquassabamticook are unsettled above their 
mouths. A few isolated farms, unconnected by 
road, contain the only lands on the Allagash and 
on the St. Francis (between Glazier and Boun- 
dary lakes), denuded of natural forest growth. 
The Great Fish River region is more or less set- 
tled from Portage Lake to Fort Kent, although, 
above Nadeau Lake, the cleared lands never ex- 
tend to the stream. Above Portage Lake the 



144 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

forests are intact. The main Meruimpticook has 
no settlers above the intervale land at the mouth ; 
and while the Madawaska River and the western 
shores of Temiscouata are well settled, the valleys 
of the Touladi, upper Cabineau, and Ashberish 
rivers are still invested with luxuriant forest 
growth. Green River is unsettled above the east 
branch, the Aroostook above Ox Bow, the Tobique 
above Nictaux, the Nashwaak above Rocky Brook. 
While the valleys of the tributaries below Fred- 
ericton are more closely populated, it is very 
doubtful if even one of these streams has a drain- 
age basin less than half clad in a dense growth of 
trees. 

What will happen when all this territory is 
deprived of its present sylvan character? The 
annual freshets, already somewhat afflictive, will 
undoubtedly increase in proportion to the dimin- 
ution of woodland. In the Connecticut valley, 
where the forests have been largely cut down or 
burned, the floods are said to surpass those of the 
St. John, while the average rainfall cannot be 
much greater, and may be less ; and on the Ohio 
a difference of sixty feet is recorded between ex- 
tremes of high and low water. Such a rise on 
the St. John at Fredericton would submerge 
everything but church steeples. One obvious 
reason why forest denudation is followed by an 
increased violence in the floods is that snow, col- 
lected in severe winters, lies more exposed to the 



VABIOUS FEATURES OF THE ST. JOHN. 145 

sun's rays in spring. It must be remembered 
however, that forests themselves induce rainfall, 
according to some cooperation of natural causes 
not fully understood. 

In the St. John valley, where the winters are 
almost arctic in severity and snows accumulate 
for many months, many people live on intervale 
lands, and a satisfactory solution of the various 
moot questions relating to forest and flood may 
one day become of vital importance. To illus- 
trate the rate at which the denuding process goes 
on, I may state that, in the present year, 1893, 
fifty millions of feet of lumber were cut within 
the Aroostook valley alone. Forty years ago the 
Tobique was almost entirely unsettled, and Mr. 
Cooney described it in 1832 as " a river bathing 
the unimproved and almost unknown lands of the 
county of York," but now there is a road to the 
Nictaux, sixty miles above the mouth, and a suc- 
cession of prosperous farms. On other tributa- 
ries the settler and his axe have advanced almost 
as rapidly. 

THE FRESHETS. 

The highest freshet ever known to occur on the 
St. John was that of May, 1887, when the water 
covered a considerable portion of the Fredericton 
town plot, carried away numerous bridges, and 
devastated the lowlands of Sheffield and Mauger- 
ville for over a week. As usual, the principal 



146 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

water came from the upper St. Jolm, the Aroos- 
took River probably being the largest contribu- 
tor. So feeble, in comparison, was the stream 
of the Madawaska, that the St. John, backing up, 
lifted the Edmundston bridge from its abutments 
and deposited it on the bank above. The flood 
assumed phenomenal proportions at Fredericton 
on the fourth of May, and on the thirteenth of 
that month a rapid subsidence began. The lower 
tributaries, especially the Nashwaak, reached their 
highest level a week sooner than the St. John at 
Fredericton; as the snow above Grand Falls 
thaws later, and it takes several days for the 
water of the more northerly tributaries to reach 
Fredericton. The little village below the Nash- 
waak, sometimes called " Tattletown," was in a 
bad predicament, the water sweeping through it 
very forcibly, and compelling people to evacuate 
their shops and interchange visits by boat in a 
manner quite ultra- Venetian. As the land was 
lower in the Portobello depression than on the 
immediate river bank, the current quickened 
wherever an inlet that way was afforded. In 
Maugerville and Sheffield many farmers fled with 
their goods to the highlands, and in a few locali- 
ties the water is said to have entered second-story 
windows, and there dej)osited logs, so that their 
ends protruded after the subsidence took place. 
In some of the barns, floating floors were made for 
cattle, but this novel expedient failed to insure 



VABIOUS FEATURES OF THE ST. JOHN. 147 

their safety in at least one instance, where it is 
said that a few of the unfortunate animals were 
crushed against the stationary floor above. The 
flood country presents a somewhat melancholy 
aspect when houses, barns, haystacks, and leafless 
trees arise above a desolate waste of turbid wa- 
ters ; and in the vividness of his imagination the 
spectator is carried back to the coal period, al- 
most expecting to see some huge, misshapen rep- 
tile emerge above the labyrinths of sunken bushes. 

As the tidal inflow through the Narrows above 
Indiantown is distributed evenly over Grand Bay, 
spending its force less than twenty miles inland, 
so does this wide expansion scatter the flood-water, 
which might otherwise rise to a dangerous level, 
when checked in its outlet by the narrowness of 
the channel. The current at Fredericton was 
more rapid during the first stages of the flood of 
1887 than afterwards, when Grand Bay and the 
other catch-basins were filled, and so vast an 
amount of water was backed up that the U^erepis 
flats were inundated several days after the subsi- 
dence above. The unusual outpouring of fresh 
water is said to have prevented the tide from 
entering St. John harbor, and by all accounts 
" the reversible cataract " became a truly inspir- 
ing sight. 

Mr. G. F. Matthew, speaking of the remark- 
able retention of flood-water by the Narrows in an 
article " On the Occurrence of Arctic and Western 



148 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

Plants in Continental Acadia," says : " These 
pent-up waters are then compelled to spread them- 
selves over the lowlands of the valley of the river 
and such affluents as the Kennebecasis, Nerepis, 
Washademoak, Belleisle, Grand Lake, and the 
Oromocto. Two extensive though very irregu- 
larly shaped lakes are thus formed, — the lower 
one extending, in the form of an oxbow, down the 
valley of the Kennebecasis, around Grand Bay, 
and up the "Long Reach" and Belleisle Bay; 
the upper one embracing a large area, beginning 
at the lower end of Long Island, and extending 
upwards over the lowlands lying around the 
Washademoak River, Grand, Maquapit, and 
French lakes, and all the intervale lands between 
Gagetown and the Oromocto, submerging also 
the lands on each side of this river for many 
miles up. The area of these lake-like expansions 
of the St. Jolm River, which lie partly among the 
southern hills and partly to the northward of 
them, cannot fall far short of 600 square miles." 

THE ICE. 

Excepting the principal waterfalls and "air- 
holes," and possibly the Madawaska River above 
Degele, ice forms on all waters of the St. John 
above the Narrows. The " air-holes," which are 
small open spaces, usually oval-shaped, that 
rarely or never freeze over, although surrounded 
by strong, thick ice, often appear in the same 



VABIOUS FEATURES OF THE ST. JOHN. 149 

places winter after winter, and originate from 
causes not very well understood. Some are near 
the mouths of tributaries, others near springs. 
A changeable winter often forms thicker ice 
than one of steady cold, as every thaw is fol- 
lowed by a freezing of surface water poured 
down from the banks. 

Experiments recently made at Fredericton 
have again illustrated the fact that solid ice may 
move within itself, that is, by an alteration of 
the relations of its component particles, without 
any fracture, or general movement of the entire 
mass. Stakes were placed in a straight line be- 
tween the banks, and some months later the line 
of the stakes had assumed a curvature down- 
stream, the distance from the original line 
increasing with the distance from the river 
banks. 

The average duration of the period when navi- 
gation is closed at Fredericton is one hundred 
and forty-four days. Once within the memory of 
residents now living, the ice ran out in January, 
during a midwinter thaw of unusual clemency, 
but as a rule the river is solidly frozen over from 
the latter part of November until the middle of 
April. Even the rough rapids above AUagash 
are annually coated with ice, said to be suffi- 
ciently thick to support a span of horses and 
heavily loaded sled. At times the river affords 
unrivaled skating facilities, the part between Fred- 



150 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

ericton and Gagetown being usually tlie best. 
Skaters occasionally quit Fredericton in the early 
morning, and reach Clifton on the Kennebecasis 
by nightfall, thus leaving seventy-five miles of 
glaciated river marked up with their tracks. As 
the Grand Bay ice is seldom safe, because of tidal 
fluctuations, the skaters proceed up Kingston 
Creek from the BeUeisle, and walk to Kenne- 
becasis Bay. From Fredericton to Oromocto, and 
more rarely to Gagetown, the river surface is 
often one continuous ice-sheet, so smooth that it 
vividly reflects the surrounding landscape. The 
Oromocto stream is not so safe for skaters, being 
warmer water; and the rapid currents above 
Fredericton make the ice in that direction rather 
treacherous. After the ice has formed, a rise 
in the stream often loosens it along the banks, 
where flood-water is pressed up, forming, as it 
freezes, bands of yellowish colored ice, called 
" shore streaks," which usually have a glassy ap- 
pearance, and are very pleasant to skate upon. 

When well frozen, the St. John affords a com- 
mon highway, and several Fredericton streets are 
annually continued across the ice and marked by 
lines of spruce bushes. Before the bridges were 
built, these " street continuations " often changed 
places with a partial movement of the ice, allow- 
ing people to walk down Carleton Street, for in- 
stance, to the water front, and proceed across the 
river on what was but one day, possibly but one 



VABIOUS FEATURES OF THE ST. JOHN. 151 

hour, previously a continuation of York Street. 
The general ice-run, which causes much damage, 
usually precedes the water-flood by a week or ten 
days. Wharves and bridges are liable to be mu- 
tilated, or completely demolished ; alluvial banks 
eroded, large trees uprooted. In one instance the 
upper story of a wooden house, built on a jetty on 
the bank, was swept away in toto, the occupants 
barely escaping with their lives. On the islands 
and intervales, barns are chained to trees, but not 
so much for protection against the all-powerful 
ice as against the subsequent freshet, when real 
estate sometimes travels with a facility usually 
accorded to personal property alone. 

In years gone by, several bad " ice-jams " have 
occurred near Fredericton, damming the water to 
a dangerous height. On the 11th of April, 1831, 
one of these " jams," at Simond's Point, two miles 
below the town, inundated all the front streets ; 
and so sudden was the breaking up throughout 
the river's course, that immense ice-cakes got 
stranded, or upturned like polar bergs, rising even 
to the level of the housetops, and threatening the 
town with destruction. In 1854, or thereabouts, 
an ice-jam raised the water to a level which cer- 
tainly equaled, perhaps exceeded, the maximum 
flood-level in 1887 ; and cannon were discharged 
over it, in order that the concussion might loosen 
the mass. The whole plain was swept by water 
and ice a short time before the landing of the 



152 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

Loyalists. At anotlier time numerous congealed 
fragments of tlie St. John and its tributaries 
formed an incredibly liigh dam near Keswick ; but 
there being no city to submerge above that point, 
the accumulated mass was considerately permitted 
to disintegrate by natural processes alone. In 
April, 1887, another " jam " occurred in the same 
locality, which existed several days, while on the 
wharves at Gibson ice-blocks were piled thirty or 
forty feet high. The rapidly rising water wore 
awa}^ the Keswick jam, and some of the detached 
cakes congealed together, and descended the 
stream as bergs, sufficiently large to ground in 
deep water opposite Fredericton. 

When a severe and snowy winter is followed by 
a rapid change in spring, or by heavy rains, the 
freshet consequent thereupon tears the strong ice 
from its riparian fastenings, causing a violent 
" run ; " but when the thermal change is slow, or 
unattended by heavy rainfall, the ice rots gradu- 
ally, or melts away without much motion. 

Five miles an hour may be considered the max- 
imum speed of running ice below the Keswick 
islands, and the display generally commences with 
the movement of one huge cake extending from 
bank to bank, followed by a procession of smaller 
ones. The abutments of the bridges cut them like 
knives. Later comes the broken ice, affording a 
much more curious spectacle. The blocks are of 
all shapes and sizes, jumbled together in one 



VABIOUS FEATURES OF THE ST. JOHN. 153 

great mass, from which a grinding, crunching 
somid proceeds, varied at times by the bellowing 
of unfortunate cattle contained in some barn that 
has been picked up and carried away without the 
slightest resulting liability for trespass or larceny. 
The ice of this confused mass, having traveled 
some distance, is discolored by mud and turf torn 
from the banks. The tout ensemble is decidedly 
imposing. 

In the principal lakes the drifting and expan- 
sion of ice often cause peculiar dynamical effects. 
On the southern shore of Grand Lake, below 
Dykeman's Beach, a ridge of stones and gravel 
has been formed, perhaps twenty feet in height. 
Trees cluster on top, and behind the land recedes 
into a swampy flat. In frosty nights, when the 
mercury is many degrees below the cipher, the 
great ice-fields contract so violently that their 
mass is fractured; and cracks appear, which rap- 
idly extend in all directions, emitting sounds by 
no means musical. A rapid rise in the tempera- 
ture creates expansion, the ice becoming pressed 
up in ridges when unable to overcome the lateral 
resistances. On Grand Lake these glacial ridges 
are said to attain a height of ten feet, and they 
frequently break along their summits, forming 
curious faults and overlapping strata. It is but a 
miniature of the great terrestrial change by which 
the loftiest mountains have been uplifted from the 
seas, the continents created, the earth made fit for 
human habitation. 



154 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

On tlie lower waters the phenomena of ice and 
flood are especially interesting. After the ordi- 
nary freshets of the Washademoak, Kennebecasis, 
and Nerepis have subsided, the flood-water from 
the upper St. John appears and spreads up the 
depressions of these rivers, causing a second over- 
flow of greater magnitude than the first. On the 
Kennebecasis this second flood is called the " back- 
freshet." So the ice of the upper waters is dis- 
charged into the Grand Bay two weeks after the 
local ice has passed the Narrows, and there it 
drifts about (when the winds are southerly), ex- 
erting a chilling influence upon the air, and re- 
tarding vegetation. 

THE FISHERIES OF THE ST. JOHN. 

The subject of the fisheries is too comprehensive 
a one to be exhaustively discussed in a work of 
the present kind, but the reader is referred to the 
reports on the sea and river fisheries of New 
Brunswick by the late M. H. Perley, Esq., from 
which much of the following information is de- 
rived. 

Of all fishes found within the waters of the St. 
John, the brook trout QSalmo fontinalis) is the 
one most generally distributed. Nearly every 
stream and lake is supplied with a greater or less 
number of them, and they vary in weight from 
one ounce to five and a half pounds. Says Mr. 
Perley: "The brook trout is a migratory fish: 



VARIOUS FEATURES OF THE ST. JOHN. 155 

when in its power, it invariably descends to the 
sea, and returns to perpetuate its species by de- 
positing its spawn in tbe clearest, coolest, and 
most limpid waters it can find. Various causes 
have been assigned for the great variety in the 
color of the brook trout. One great cause is the 
difference of food ; such as live upon fresh- water 
shrimps and other Crustacea are the brightest; 
those which feed upon May flies, and other com- 
mon aquatic insects, are the next ; and those feed- 
ing upon worms, the dullest and darkest of all. 
The color and brilliancy of the water has also a 
very material effect upon Salmo fontinalis. The 
fish of streams running rapidly over pebbly beds 
are superior, both in appearance and quality, to 
those of ponds or semi-stagnant brooks." 

As illustrating these principles, it may be stated 
that trout caught in the clear water of the White 
Sand Cove, Great Oromocto Lake, are usually 
bright and light-colored, while those found in the 
sluggish creek at the southern end of that lake 
are very dark. The trout of the Tay and Unde- 
nack, clear-water tributaries of the Nashwaak 
Eiver, are much brighter than those of the Pen- 
nioc and Napadogan, where the water is darker ; 
and the trout of Green River and the Tobique are 
lighter in color than those of Great Fish River 
and the Allagash. Mr. William Mclnnes, of the 
Canadian Geological Survey, speaking of the trout 
on the west or lake branch of Green River, says : 



156 THE ST. JOHN BIVEE. 

" They are very noticeably different from those of 
the main stream, being deeper colored, of great 
width in proportion to their length, and more slug- 
gish in movement." Nearly all the quiet waters 
of the river are on the west branch. 

The great gray trout (^Salmo ferox)^ better 
known as the " togue " or " touladi," is found in 
great numbers, and of large size, in the lakes of 
the Madawaska, Fish, St. Francis, and Allagash 
rivers, as well as in Lac de I'Est and elsewhere. 
In Lake Temiscouata the fish has been taken of 
the weight of twenty-one pounds, and the most 
sportsman-like way of catching it is by " trolling ' 
from a canoe or boat in early spring. Mr. Per- 
ley thus describes the " touladi : " " When in per- 
fect season and full-grown, it is a handsome fish, 
though the head is too large and long to accord 
with perfect ideas of symmetry in. a trout. The 
colors are deep purplish brown above, changing 
into reddish gray, and thence into fine orange 
yellow on the breast and belly. The flesh is or- 
ange yellow, not the rich salmon color of the com- 
mon trout, when in good condition ; the flavor 
coarse and indifferent. The stomach is very ca- 
pacious, and generally found gorged with fish ; it 
is very voracious, and well deserves the name of 
Salmo feroxP 

The salmon QSalmo solar) enters the St. John 
at the latter part of May, or rather the male fish 
does ; the female appearing a month later, and the 



VARIOUS FEATUBES OF THE ST. JOHN. 157 

grilse, or young salmon, last of all. It seldom 
" takes the fly " on the main river, but, like the 
trout, becomes thoroughly sportive on attaining 
the clear, cold Tobique. The change of water 
both improves its quality and produces a radical 
change of habit. 

In former years the salmon frequented all the 
principal southern tributaries of the St. John, 
more especially the Nashwaak, Oromocto, Ca- 
naan, and Kennebecasis, with the two Salmon riv- 
ers, where now they are virtually extinct. On 
the Nashwaak their disappearance is chiefly due 
to the construction of dams and mills, — for what 
fish will venture up a stream paved several feet 
deep with decomposing sawdust ? — while on the 
Kennebecasis and Canaan it has resulted from in- 
sufficient protection. Mr. Yenning, in a report 
to the local government, says with regard to the 
Kennebecasis, " The inhabitants seem to be actu- 
ated by an insane desire to destroy every salmon 
that appears in its waters." 

The Tobique, from its swift current, pure cold 
water, and favorable situation, is preeminently 
the salmon stream of the St. John system ; and 
when the fish are prevented by the Grand FaUs 
from ascending the main river, turned away from 
Salmon River by obstructions in the channel, and 
disgusted with the Aroostook's impurity, or wea- 
ried with unavailing efforts to scale the rapids of 
its gorge, they seek this noble stream, where all 



158 THE ST. JOHN EIVEB. 

conditions favor them, and no rapacious pickerel 
are found to prey upon their young. 

The American yellow perch (^Perca Jlaves- 
cens), common in the quieter waters of the St. 
John, is greenish yellow above, with golden yel- 
low sides, crossed transversely by seven dark 
bands, the broadest upon the middle of the body, 
and is white beneath. The back and tail fins are 
brownish, the others scarlet. " The general hab- 
itat of the perch," says Mr. Perley, " is in lakes 
and streams not too rapid. It delights in a clear 
bottom, with a grassy margin, or in rivers over- 
hung with brush, and widening into some lake- 
like expanse. Here the perch roam in shoals, de- 
scending and rising while seeking their food, and 
shading from the too great heat among the aqua- 
tic plants, or under the broad leaves of the water- 
lily. The fish spawns in May, then resorting to 
the mouths of rivulets in great numbers." 

The striped bass, although a salt-water fish, 
ascends the fresh-water streams to breed in the 
spring, and for a shelter during the winter. In 
length it varies from one to three feet, and very 
large ones have been taken in the St. John River, 
and in Grand Lake, by night lines in the winter 
season. It is a good fish for sport, being very 
active, and frequently rising to the fly. 

The " white perch," so caUed, is really a small 
variety of bass, inhabiting sluggish waters near 
aquatic plants and weeds. In weight it varies 



VAEIOUS FEATURES OF THE ST. JOHN. 159 

from four ounces to a pound, and the flesh, when 
in season, is very edible. Perch sometimes rise 
to an artificial fly, but are commonly caught by 
bottom fishing, with worm bait. 

The " pond " or " sunfish," which is not very 
eatable, being bony and dry, frequents the same 
waters as the yellow perch. Mr. Perley says it 
is often caught for amusement, but observation 
leads one to believe that it is more often taken 
through an inability to keep it off the hook when 
fishing for something better, — a variety of sport 
that is fully as well calculated to tantalize as 
amuse. 

The common sucker, varying in length from 
ten to fourteen inches, abounds in all the slug- 
gish waters. It is not very good for food, and 
the least gamey of all the fishes. Another fre- 
quenter of sluggish places is the yellow shiner, a 
delicate, finely flavored fish, much too small for 
sport. The red-fin, roach dace, and shining dace, 
or shiner, are three other small fishes often asso- 
ciated with trout. They are good for food (the 
red-fin especially so), and in the best condition in 
May. 

No fish is more common than the chub (^Leu- 
ciscus cephalus)^ a coarse fish, sometimes weigh- 
ing over three pounds. Now and then it takes 
the fiy, to the disgust of the inexperienced angler, 
who fancies he has hooked a handsome trout. 
Among the small fishes are the minnows, found in 



160 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

almost every brook, and useful as bait for larger 
fisb. 

Tbe American smelt, a savory fisb, sometimes 
taken a foot in lengtb, but generally five or six 
incbes, is captured in great numbers along tbe 
lower St, Jobn in early spring, before tbe flood- 
waters bave subsided. It is named, according to 
Mr. Perley, from a peculiar smell, resembling 
tbat of cucumbers. Smelt feed largely on 
sbrimps, and a piece of any crustaceous animal 
will answer for bait. 

In tbe great lakes of the Madawaska, Fisb, and 
St. Francis rivers we find tbe wbitefisb (^Oore- 
gonus alhus)^ called tbe " gizzard fisb " by lum- 
bermen, and " poisson pointu " by tbe Frencb. 
Tbe pool below tbe Little Falls at Edmundston 
was once famous for wbitefisb, the natives tak- 
ing them with dip-nets in large niunbers, but tbe 
erection of the dam proved destructive to this 
fishery. In Lake Temiscouata the wbitefisb 
often exceeds three pounds in weight, and is very 
delicious, but in the lower waters it seldom ex- 
ceeds a pound and a half. Mr. Perley thinks 
that the fish of this species found in Grand Lake 
and the lower St. John were swept over the 
Grand Falls, having ventured too far from the 
great lakes on the northern tributaries, and he 
gives the following description of their habits : 
^'During the summer, the wbitefisb is not seen 
in Lake Temiscouata, and it is then supposed to 



VARIOUS FEATURES OF THE ST. JOHN. 161 

retire to the depths of that unusually deep and 
cold lake. In October it draws near the shore, 
and ascends the Tooladie River during the night 
for the purpose of spawning. Having deposited 
its spawn, it retires as quickly as possible to the 
lake. When the fish draws near the shore, prior 
to spawning, the fishery is carried on, chiefly in 
a little bay in the lake, where the Tooladie emp- 
ties. The great gray trout (^Salmo ferox) follows 
the whitefish to the shore, and preys upon it. 
While the nets are set for the whitefish, the fish- 
ermen with torch and spear attack and capture 
the Salmo ferox^ frequently of large size ; hence 
the latter fish has acquired the name of ' toola- 
die,' from the river to which it is attracted by 
its favorite prey." An early Maine explorer, 
speaking of the fish in Eagle Lake, Fish River, 
says : " The kind most sought after is the white- 
fish. It is the work of but a short time to load a 
horse." 

Shad ascend the St. John to Fredericton, and 
resort for spawning to Grand Lake, Darling's 
Lake on the Kennebecasis, Douglas Lake on the 
Nerepis, Washademoak Lake, Otnabog Lake, and 
the Oromocto River. They vary in length from 
one to two feet. The gaspereau ascends the river 
to the same localities as the shad. 

In Lake Temiscouata, and the lakes of the Fish 
and St. Francis rivers, the fresh-water cusk is not 
uncommon. The body of the fish is compressed 



162 THE ST. JOHN BIVJEB. 

and somewliat eel-shaped, and it hides under 
stones, waiting and watching for prey. Many are 
taken near Fredericton, at the beginning of winter, 
by night lines dropped through the ice, but the 
best fishing ground is said to be on the sand-bars 
above Oromocto. The length of the fish varies 
from eighteen inches to two feet ; the weight some- 
times exceeds six pounds ; and the flesh is white, 
firm, and of good flavor. 

Fresh-water eels are plentiful in all the more 
sluggish waters. They vary in length from six 
inches to two feet or more, and may be captured 
with hook and line or by spearing. Passing by 
the unsightly catfish QPimelodus catus) as a nui- 
sance to fishermen, we have, for final considera- 
tion, the sharp-nosed sturgeon, greatest in size 
among the fishes of the St. John. The sturgeon 
formerly ascended the river in considerable num- 
bers in May, and basked upon the shoals above 
Oromocto and southward of Grand Point in the 
Grand Lake, but they are now almost extinct in 
this vicinity, a result of over-fishing. The lam- 
prey eel, fastening upon their bellies and eating 
into the flesh, caused the big fish to jump high out 
of the water in their struggles for freedom, and 
they are said to have fallen on canoes in these un- 
advised attempts at aerial locomotion. This must 
have been embarrassing, especially when the fish 
was full-grown, or from six to nine feet long. 



VAEIOUS FEATURES OF THE ST. JOHN 163 

INSECTS. 

We grieve to say that the beautiful forests of 
the St. John are infested by hordes of mosquitoes, 
black flies, moose flies, and midges, that lurk 
beneath the leaves and copsewood until an unsus- 
pecting foe appears, when, less fearful of death 
than Zulus on the plains of Africa, they shout 
their battle-cry (at least the mosquitoes do, — 
black flies are not so civil) and rush to the attack 
from all sides. 

Midges are called " bite-'em-no-see-'ems " by 
the Indians, and worse names by white men. 
Certain localities have especially infamous repu- 
tations for insects, but a difficulty arises in at- 
tempting to localize with accuracy the principal 
centres of torment. It may be true, speaking 
generally, that the country above the Grand Falls 
is worse for black flies than that below ; and the 
country below, more especially that drained by the 
marshy waters of the Oromocto and Jemseg, a 
worse mosquito ground than the region above, 
midges being a luxury quite evenly distributed. 
June is the worst fly season on the lower waters, 
but above the falls, where the winters are longer, 
the insects seldom attain their full numerical 
strength before July. They bite very assiduously 
during the earlier weeks of August, but vanish 
when September comes. Stories might be told of 
these fiendish little invertebrates that would " har- 



164 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

row up tlie soul," did the design of this work per- 
mit. 

The temperature has a marked effect upon 
insects, as they seldom bite when the mercury is 
above ninety degrees, or below fifty degrees. 
About seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit may be 
considered the favorite biting point. Many con- 
coctions are used to repel their sanguinary on- 
slaughts, but none more efficacious than " slith- 
eroo," a mixture of tar with bear's grease. When 
this compound is applied in layers of sufficient 
thickness les mouches never bite through it, sim- 
ply because they cannot. 

THE DISPUTED TEEKITORY. 

For many years the region drained by the up- 
per St. John and its important affluents, the Alla- 
gash, Fish, and Aroostook rivers, was the subject 
of serious controversies between the governments 
of the United States and Great Britain. By the 
treaty of 1783, the northwestern boundary of 
Nova Scotia (then including New Brunswick) 
was to be "formed by a line drawn due north 
from the source of the St. Croix to the highlands 
which divide those rivers that empty themselves 
into the river St. Lawrence, from those which fall 
into the Atlantic Ocean, to the northwestern- 
most head of the Connecticut River." Unfortu- 
nately no such division line could possibly be 
drawn. The Penobscot, Kennebec, and Andros- 



VARIOUS FEATUBES OF THE ST. JOHN. 165 

coggin rivers, falling into the Atlantic, were 
separated by the highlands referred to in the 
treaty, not from any rivers falling into the St. 
Lawrence, but from the St. John and its tributa- 
ries, emptying into the Bay of Fundy. Disputes 
arose, attended with much ill-feeling, and under 
Jay's treaty, in 1794, a commission was appointed 
to establish the line. The commissioners sur- 
veyed a boundary which ran due north from 
Monument Brook, the source of the St. Croix; 
but at Mars Hill, on the Presque Isle stream, the 
old trouble arose between them, the Americans 
insisting that the north line should extend to the 
river Metis in Quebec, the English declaring 
that Mars Hill was the true northwestern angle 
of Nova Scotia. Work was abandoned. By the 
Treaty of Ghent, the king of the Netherlands 
was chosen to arbitrate ; whereupon his Majesty 
mastered the geography of the Chiputneticook, 
Apmoojenagamook, and Woolastookpectawaago- 
mic as only such an august personage could, and 
prescribed a boundary line which extended due 
north from the St. Croix to the St. John river, 
followed the "thalweg," or deepest channel, to 
the St. Francis, and thence proceeded by various 
courses to the northwestern source of the Connect- 
icut. The American government refused to ac- 
cept the award, and the matter became once more 
a fruitful source of strife. In 1839 new commis- 
sioners were appointed (Mr. Featherstonhaugh 



166 THE ST. JOHN BIVEB. 

and Lieutenant-Colonel Mudge of the Royal En- 
gineers), but the time allowed was insufficient for 
a sati^actory survey, and the commissioners' re- 
port was rejected ; finally the Americans crossed 
the watershed, erected Fort Fairfield on the Aroos- 
took, and a block-house at Fish Eiver, and pro- 
ceeded to colonize the country. An agent sent to 
Madawaska by the government of Maine was 
seized by the British officials and incarcerated at 
Fredericton. He had distributed some money 
among the people, the Americans calling it " sur- 
plus money of the United States ; " the English, 
" a bribe to induce the natives to break their al- 
legiance to the crown." The Federal government, 
anxious for peace, offered Maine 1,000,000 acres 
of land in Michigan as a compensation for the 
disputed territory. Maine refused to accept this 
quid 'pro quo^ but issued a proclamation declaring 
that the country had been invaded by a foreign 
foe, and ordering the militia to hold themselves in 
readiness for active service. The Provincial gov- 
ernment issued a similar proclamation. In 1842 
the two nations were on the very verge of war, 
and Lord Ashburton was dispatched to America, 
that it might be forever determined whether 
Maine was in New Brunswick, or New Brmiswick 
in Maine. On this occasion the American gov- 
ernment was represented by Daniel Webster, who 
remained in office expressly for that purpose, and 
the boundary agreed upon ran due north from the 



VARIOUS FEATURES OF THE ST. JOHN. 167 

source of the St. Croix, passed near Mars Hill, 
touched the St. John River three miles above 
Grand Falls, followed the thread of the stream to 
St. Francis, ascended the St. Francis to Boundary- 
Lake, and thence ran southwesterly across the 
two Black rivers and Lac de I'Est to the south- 
west branch of the St. John, which stream it fol- 
lowed for thirty-two miles. This line forms the 
international boundary of to-day, and varies but 
little from that laid down by William, king of the 
the Netherlands. The " disputed territory " con- 
tains 12,027 square miles. By the Ashburton 
Treaty the United States obtained 7,015 square 
miles, England 5,012 ; by the king's line, Eng- 
land would have obtained 4,119 miles, the United 
States 7,908. 

EST CONCLUSION. 

The principal subjects of discussion relating to 
the geography of the St. John Have now been 
briefly treated, and the writer regrets that the de- 
sign and scope of the present work prevent a more 
minute description of the various interesting re- 
gions composing that river system. A book might 
be written about the Tobique or the Madawaska 
river alone, that would, without digressing from 
such matters as are interesting to canoeist and 
sportsman, contain much more material than this. 
The extent of the country drained by the St. John 
has been estimated at twenty-six thousand square 



168 THE ST. JOHN BIVER. 

miles, an area mucli larger than that of the 
Province of Nova Scotia, and including certain 
portions of Dorchester, Bellechase, Montmagny, 
L 'Islet, Kamouraska, Temiscouata, and Eimouski 
counties in the Province of Quebec ; Aroostook, 
Somerset, Piscataquis, and Penobscot counties in 
the State of Maine ; and every county in New 
Brunswick except Gloucester ; but while it is true 
that the river, or some tributary, drains a portion 
of each of these counties, it is equally true that 
no one county is wholly drained by it. 

The two greatest game preserves east of the 
Rocky Mountains are the wilderness tracts lying 
to the eastward and westward of the middle St. 
John. These tracts are of nearly equal area. 
One is bounded southerly by the line of the Ca- 
nadian Pacific Railway (in Maine), westerly and 
northerly by the French settlements in Quebec, 
and easterly by settlements bordering the valley 
of the St. John ; the other is bounded westerly by 
the settlements of the St. John, southerly by the 
line of the Northern and Western Railway, and 
northerly and easterly by the valley of the St. 
Lawrence and the Intercolonial Railway. Both 
tracts are covered with a luxuriant forest growth, 
traversed by innumerable rivers and brooks, and 
dotted with lakes of all sizes. In the Maine 
woods the watercourses are more readily naviga- 
ble than they are in central New Brunswick ; 
but New Brunswick has a decided advantage in 



VABIOUS FEATURES OF THE ST. JOHN. 169 

natural scenery and in tlie superior excellence of 
its trout and salmon streams. 

The St. John is greatest among the many wa- 
tercourses by which the product of the eastern 
forest is transported to the coast ; and as a stately 
tree expands to form branches, twigs, and leaves, 
so does this noble river ramify ; permeating the 
wilderness in all directions with its many afflu- 
ents, its lakes and rivulets. 



CHAPTER VI. 
SETTLEMENT OF THE RIVER VALLEY.i 

Theke are few places of the same extent in 
North America which possess a history so varied 
as that of the valley of the St. John. Aside 
from its purely local annals and associations, 
already rich for so new a country, it offers not 
a little of more general interest. 

The history of its colonization presents a curi- 
ous parallel to the varied movements which have 
colonized North America as a whole. In the case 
of both continent and valley, the population has 
been acquired in a series of waves. First of aU, 
the St. John possesses a tribe of Indians, once 
owners throughout it all, but now forced to a few 
grudgingly granted plots, and viewed as aliens, if 
not as inferior beings. It has, secondly, an old 
and very purely foreign element in the Acadian 
French, these likewise now crowded to a corner 
of the goodly extent over which they were once 
recognized as rulers. Thirdly, it has a pre-Revo- 
lutionary New England settlement, a j)roduct of 

1 These notes upon the settlement of the valley of the St. 
John have been furnished upon our request by a local histo- 



SETTLEMENT OF THE BIVEB VALLEY, 171 

the same adventuring spirit whicli sent their kin- 
dred colonizing to the westward. To these follow a 
few Englishmen direct from the home land. Next 
come the Loyalists, a great number, New Bruns- 
wick's priceless accession, her Pilgrim Fathers, 
her real foundation. Their coming was one re- 
sult of the Revolution, which thus so completely 
changed the course of events for New Brunswick 
as well as for the continent. Finally, the valley 
contains settlements of the best classes of later 
European immigrants, — English, Irish, Scotch, 
Danish, and others, who have come to the Prov- 
ince as their kindred have come to the States in 
the present century. 

The Indians of the valley form the Maliseet 
tribe, of Algonquin stock. They are closely akin 
to the Passamaquoddies and Penobscots to the 
west, and distantly related to the Micmacs of the 
north and east. They are much mixed with white 
blood, but are upon the whole superior to the ma- 
jority of the Indian tribes. They possess a fair 
physique, and are generally honest and peaceable. 
They live by hunting, acting as guides and supple- 
mentary woods trades, but make very poor farm- 
ers and laborers. At present they are increas- 
ing slowly in numbers, a fact which their dilution 
with white blood goes far to explain. They were 
friendly to the first explorers, and, except for 
minor local hostilities, generally stirred up by 
one white race against another, they have been so 



172 THE ST. JOHN BIVER. 

to the white inhabitants of the valley ever since. 
Their most conspicuous appearance in history has 
been in connection with their raids, in alliance 
with and under command of the French, upon the 
New England settlements. They have played 
but a small part in the history of the valley, and 
have produced practically no effect at all upon 
the formation of the New Brunswick people. 
The principal Maliseet villages are upon reserva- 
tions (1) at Apohoqui, (2) opposite Fredericton, 
(3) at French Village, a few miles above Fred- 
ericton, (4) at Woodstock, (5) at Tobique, (6) at 
Madawaska, with smaller and more or less tem- 
porary encampments near St. John, at Gagetown 
and other places. 

Before the coming of Europeans, there is reason 
to believe, these Maliseets occupied the river only 
from Fredericton upwards, the lower part to the 
mouth being in the hands of the Micmacs. Their 
principal settlements were upon sites now aban- 
doned, at Meductic, a few miles above Eel River ; 
and at Auk-pahk, now Spring Hill, five miles 
above Fredericton. Their place-names along the 
river have happily largely persisted, the names of 
nearly every one of its branches being of Indian 
origin. 

The authentic history of the valley begins with 
its discovery by Samuel de Champlain, on St. 
John's Day, 1604. It was partially explored by 
one of his lieutenants, and more thoroughly a few 



SETTLEMENT OF THE BIVEB VALLEY. 173 

years later by fishermen and fur-traders. About 
1635, Charles de la Tour, under authority of a 
grant from the king of France, built a strong 
fort at the mouth of the river, upon which, and 
the great fur-trade it controlled, his neighbor 
D'Aulnay Charnisay, of Port Royal (now Anna- 
polis) cast envious eyes. The various efforts of 
these two men for supremacy in Acadia culmi- 
nated in 1645 in the success of Charnisay, who 
during the absence of his rival captured and de- 
stroyed his fort. The story of the defense of this 
fort is the most picturesque in the history of the 
St. John, and a great favorite with the local 
chroniclers. 

Towards the end of the century, large tracts of 
land along the river were granted by the French 
government to various of its favorites as seign- 
euries. The seigneurs were, by conditions of the 
grants, to bring settlers, clear land, make roads, 
etc., but these improvements were rarely or never 
made. Some of the seigneurs lived a half -savage 
life with the Indians along the river, but their 
rights gradually lapsed, and they were in time 
replaced by a few French squatters from Port 
Royal (descendants of settlers brought earlier in 
the century from France), who settled at St. John 
and a few other points along the river. 

About 1690, a strong fort was built by Ville- 
bon, the French governor, at the mouth of the 
Nashwaak, opposite Fredericton. From this fort 



174 THE ST. JOHN BIVEE. 

went fortli the expedition under Villebon and 
Villien, whicli, with the aid of the Indians, carried 
such devastation to the New England settlements. 
It was here that no less an ambitious plan than 
the capture of Boston itself was debated, and some 
attempt made to carry it out. To avenge the mur- 
derous attacks of the Indians inspired by the 
French, in 1696, an expedition from New Eng- 
land attempted to capture Fort Nashwaak, but 
was repulsed with loss. 

The few settlers on the river continued to in- 
crease very slowly in numbers until 1755, in 
which year the British government found it ne- 
cessary to remove the French from Acadia on 
account of their continued hostility to the British. 
This expulsion presents us with one of the most 
pathetic incidents of any history, and one which 
has been fully utilized in Longfellow's "Evan- 
geline." The settlers on the St. John were not 
captured, but fled up the river, and, joined by 
other fugitives, attempted to reestablish them- 
selves in various sheltered creeks and lakes, and 
at Gagetown, Fredericton, and other places. But 
from these they were driven, and only secured a 
friendly resting-place after the arrival of the 
Loyalists. Passing far above these new-comers, 
they settled below the mouth of the Madawaska. 
Lands were soon after granted to them, and since 
that time they have spread sparingly up the river, 
but rapidly down on both banks, almost exclud- 



SETTLEMENT OF THE BIVEB VALLEY. 175 

ing other settlers, to Grand Falls. The most 
important event of their subsequent history was 
the transference of nearly half of them to the 
United States by the Ashburton Treaty in 1842. 
They are honest and hospitable, but clannish and 
unprogressive, and show many characteristics of 
great interest to the student of peoples. 

The close of the "French War," in 1759-60*, 
was followed rather by a spirit of restlessness 
than by quiet in New England, and this mani- 
fested itself in emigration. Many thousands of 
the New Englanders came to Nova Scotia in 
1762-64, and a few hundreds of them to the val- 
ley of the St. John. They had their choice of al- 
most the entire river, and settled upon the rich 
intervales of Maugerville, upon the navigable 
part below Fredericton. At the breaking out of 
the Revolution they showed sympathy, very nat- 
ural under the circumstances, with their kinsmen 
in the States, but this sympathy they very soon 
transferred to the British cause, and have since 
been among the most loyal of British subjects. 
Possessing the sterling qualities of the New Eng- 
landers, they made good settlers, and have given 
to the Province some of her best men. Their 
descendants still live at Maugerville, probably as 
immixed a pre-Revolutionary colony as exists. 

The Englishmen who came during the next 
twenty years were very few in number, and never 
formed any settlement, but scattered to various 



176 THE ST. JOHN BIVER. 

points. Their descendants are still to be found 
at Oromocto and others of the older villages. 

In 1783, there came to New Brunswick many- 
thousands of Loyalists. They included those who, 
either from duty, from conviction, for gain, or 
various other incidental motives, took the side of 
the crown in the Eevolution. At its close many 
of them, for active participation, were officially 
banished from the new States ; a few were un- 
willing to remain mider the new conditions ; while 
the remainder, a great majority, were so obnox- 
ious to their successful neighbors that they were 
forced to leave the country to insure their per- 
sonal safety. To these Loyalists was granted the 
site of the city of St. John, and as much of the 
main river and its branches as was necessary to 
supply them all with land for settlement. This 
required the unoccupied lands along the main 
river as far up as Woodstock, and the accessible 
parts of the Kennebecasis, Belleisle, Washade- 
moak, and Grand Lake, and in these places 
accordingly are their descendants to be found to 
this day. The Loyalists included some of the 
ablest men of the Colonies, and their descendants 
form the largest and best part of the population 
of the St. John valley. In the places, outside of 
the cities, where they settled, they have received 
but little addition from immigration, and conse- 
quently are very nearly, in some places entirely, 
of the original stock. In city and country they 



SETTLEMENT OF THE BIVEB VALLEY. Ill 

are advanced and progressive, and show generally 
the best qualities of the Anglo-Saxon race. 

During the early years of their settlement 
there was some restlessness among the Loyalists, 
some friction with the New Englanders, and these 
together with other minor causes sent settlers 
from both parties to make homes higher up the 
river. Gradually the river banks above Wood- 
stock, up to Grand Falls, were thus thinly colo- 
nized. Early in this century other settlers began 
to arrive. A disbanded West India regiment 
settled above the Tobique ; Scotch and Irish set- 
tlers were brought by the New Brunswick gov- 
ernment, or by immigration and land companies, 
and, the river bank being occupied, were assigned 
the lands back of it, or tracts above the earlier 
settlers on the various lower branches. These, 
together with settlers from the older settlements, 
extended gradually up the Tobique and other 
upper branches, and passed above the French on 
the main river. The people of Maine extended 
into the Aroostook and Fish River valleys ; and 
so in this century there has been no new wave 
of immigration, but a slow growth by expansion 
within and addition from without. 

In rapid summary, then, the order of inhab- 
itants in ascending the river is as follows : At 
its mouth is the Loyalist city, St. John. Then, 
upon all of the lower river and its great branches, 
as far as Maugerville, are settled the descendants 



178 THE ST. JOHN BIVER. 

of the Loyalists, commingled witli a few New 
Englanders and Englishmen and some later im- 
migrants, and a few Indians at Apohoqui. At 
Maugerville are the New Englanders, above which 
occur Loyalists again to Fredericton, itself an- 
other city of this people. Hence to Woodstock, 
excepting a few Indians at each place and at 
French Village, the people are still principally 
Loyalist. Beyond Woodstock, excepting the 
Indians at Tobique, they are commingled New 
England, Loyalist, and later immigrants, the lat- 
ter especially back from the river, as far as 
Grand Falls. Thence upwards, as far as Mada- 
waska, the French occur almost exclusively ; but 
beyond Madawaska they become fewer, and are 
replaced by settlers of various origin to the St. 
Francis, above which they almost cease. At 
Seven Islands the last isolated family is passed, 
and the river remains a wilderness to its extreme 
source. 






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